Читать книгу Sigurd Our Golden Collie, and Other Comrades of the Road - Katharine Lee Bates - Страница 5

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Many a starry night had they known,

Melampo, Lupina and Cubilōn,

Shepherd-dogs, keeping

The flocks, unsleeping,

Serving their masters for crust and bone.

Many a starlight but never like this,

For star on star was a chrysalis

Whence there went soaring

A winged, adoring

Splendor out-pouring a carol of bliss.

Sniffing and bristling the gaunt dogs stood,

Till the seraphs, who smiled at their hardihood,

Calmed their panic

With talismanic

Touches like wind in the underwood.

In the dust of the road like gold-dust blown,

Melampo, Lupina and Cubilōn

Saw strange kings, faring

On camels, bearing

Treasures too bright for a mortal throne.

Shepherds three on their crooks a-leap

Sped after the kings up the rugged steep

To Bethlehem; only

The dogs, left lonely,

Stayed by the fold and guarded the sheep.

Faithful, grim hearts! The marvelous glow

Flooded e'en these with its overflow,

Wolfishness turning

Into a yearning

To worship the highest a dog may know.

When dawn brought the shepherds, each to his own,

Melampo, Lupina and Cubilōn

Bounded to meet them,

Frolicked to greet them,

Eager to serve them for love alone.