Читать книгу The World's Desire - Henry Rider Haggard, Генри Райдер Хаггард - Страница 2

     Come with us, ye whose hearts are set

     On this, the Present to forget;

     Come read the things whereof ye know

     They were not, and could not be so!

The murmur of the fallen creeds,

     Like winds among wind-shaken reeds

     Along the banks of holy Nile,

     Shall echo in your ears the while;

     The fables of the North and South

     Shall mingle in a modern mouth;

     The fancies of the West and East

     Shall flock and flit about the feast

     Like doves that cooled, with waving wing,

     The banquets of the Cyprian king.

     Old shapes of song that do not die

     Shall haunt the halls of memory,

     And though the Bow shall prelude clear

     Shrill as the song of Gunnar’s spear,

     There answer sobs from lute and lyre

     That murmured of The World’s Desire.

     There lives no man but he hath seen

     The World’s Desire, the fairy queen.

     None but hath seen her to his cost,

     Not one but loves what he has lost.

     None is there but hath heard her sing

     Divinely through his wandering;

     Not one but he has followed far

     The portent of the Bleeding Star;

     Not one but he hath chanced to wake,

     Dreamed of the Star and found the Snake.

     Yet, through his dreams, a wandering fire,

     Still, still she flits, THE WORLD’S DESIRE!