Читать книгу Robert Burns: How To Know Him - William Allan Neilson - Страница 13

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O Thou unknown Almighty Cause

Of all my hope and fear!

In whose dread presence ere an hour,

Perhaps I must appear!

If I have wander'd in those paths

Of life I ought to shun;

As something, loudly in my breast,

Remonstrates I have done;

Thou know'st that Thou hast formèd me

With passions wild and strong;

And list'ning to their witching voice

Has often led me wrong.

Where human weakness has come short,

Or frailty stept aside,

Do thou, All-Good! for such Thou art,

In shades of darkness hide.

Where with intention I have err'd,

No other plea I have,

But thou art good; and Goodness still

Delighteth to forgive.

In his Epistle to John Rankine, with a somewhat hard and heartless humor, he braves out the affair; in the following Welcome he treats it with a tender pride, as sincere as his remorse: