英美著名儿童诗一百首 [59]
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new;
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles’wings:
And just as I became assured
My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopped and I stood still,
And found myself outside the Hill,
Left alone against my will,
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more!’
ⅩⅣ
Alas, alas for Hamelin!
There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says, that Heaven's Gate
Opes to the Rich at as easy rate
As the needle' s eye takes a camel in!
The Mayor sent East, West, North and South,
To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,
Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he' d only return the way he went,
And bring the children behind him.
But when they saw’twas a lost endeavour,
And Piper and dancers were gone for ever,
They made a decree that lawyers never
Should think their records dated duly
If, after the day of the month and year,
These words did not as well appear,
‘And so long after what happened here
On the Twenty-second of July,
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six.’
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children's last retreat,
They called it, the Pied Piper's Street—
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
Was sure for the future to lose his labour.
Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
But opposite the place of the cavern
They wrote the story on a column,
And on the great Church-Window painted
The same, to make the world acquainted
How their children were stolen away;
And there it stands to this very day.
And I must not omit to say
That in Transylvania there's a tribe
Of alien people that ascribe
The outlandish ways and dress
On which their neighbours lay such stress,
To their fathers and mothers having risen
Out of some subterraneous prison
Into which they were trepanned
Long time ago in a mighty band
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
But how or why, they don't understand.
ⅩⅤ
So, Willy, let me and you be wipers
Of scores out with all men—especially pipers:
And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from
mice,
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our
promise.
■ 九十九 哈默林的花衣吹笛人
——儿童故事
罗伯特·布朗宁
一
哈默林市在布伦瑞克，
在著名城市汉诺威的近侧；
威悉河水，又深又宽广，
冲洗着它的南面的城墙；
你找不到比它更可爱的地方；
但是，当我唱起这支歌，
想起大约五百年前
市民们深受兽害的熬煎，
我真感到难过。
二
耗子闹
耗子袭击狗，弄死猫，
咬啮摇篮里的孩子，
吃掉缸里贮存的乳酪，
舔食厨师勺里的汤汁，
咬破小桶，把咸鲱鱼乱叼，
在男人的星期日礼帽里做窝巢，
甚至破坏女人们闲聊：
五十种不同的升半音降半音
组成的叽叽吱吱的尖叫声
把女人谈话的声音淹没掉。
三
最后，市民们来自全市，
成群结队地到了市政厅，
他们喊："很清楚，市长是白痴；
至于市政府，更骇人听闻，
我们买貂皮礼服给傻蛋，
他们却无能又不下决心于
为我们把耗子的祸害连根铲！
你们又老又肥胖，你们想
穿着皮袍子过悠闲的时光？
醒来，老爷