书城英文图书加拿大学生文学读本(第5册)
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第45章 THE EVENING WIND

Spirit that breathest through my lattice,thou That cool‘st the twilight of the sultry day,Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow:Thou hast been out upon the deep at play,Riding all day the wild blue waves till now,Roughening their crests,and scattering high their spray,And swelling the white sail.I welcome theeTo the scorched land,thou wanderer of the sea!

Nor I alone;a thousand bosoms round Inhale thee in the fulness of delight;And languid forms rise up,and pulses bound Livelier at coming of the wind of night;And,languishing to hear thy grateful sound,Lies the vast inland stretched beyond the sight.Go forth into the gathering shade;go forth,God’s blessing breathed upon the fainting earth!

Go,rock the little woodbird in his nest,Curl the still waters,bright with stars,and rouse The wide old wood from his majestic rest,Summoning from the innumerable boughsThe strange deep harmonies that haunt his breast:

Pleasant shall be thy way,where meekly bows The shutting flower and darkling waters pass,And where the o‘ershadowing branches sweep the grass.

The faint old man shall lean his silver headTo feel thee;thou shalt kiss the child asleep,And dry the moistened curls that overspreadHis temples,while his breathing grows more deep;And they who stand about the sick man’s bedShall joy to listen to thy distant sweep,And softly part his curtains to allowThy visit,grateful to his burning brow.

Go,but the circle of eternal change,Which is the life of nature,shall restore,With sounds and scents from all thy mighty range,Thee to thy birthplace of the deep once more;Sweet odours in the seaair,sweet and strange,Shall tell the homesick mariner of the shore;And,listening to thy murmur,he shall dream He hears the rustling leaf and running stream.