Silentium Amoris

[Larsus]

Nga OSCAR WILDE:

SILENTIUM AMORIS:

As often-times the too resplendent sun
Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon
Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won
A single ballad from the nightingale,
So doth thy Beauty make my lips to fail,
And all my sweetest singing out of tune.


And as at dawn across the level mead
On wings impetuous some wind will come,
And with its too harsh kisses break the reed
Which was its only instrument of song,
So my too stormy passions work me wrong,
And for excess of Love my Love is dumb.


But surely unto Thee mine eyes did show
Why I am silent, and my lute unstrung;
Else it were better we should part, and go,
Thou to some lips of sweeter melody,
And I to nurse the barren memory
Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung.


ITALIAN VERSION:
Sai, caro ragazzo,
sai che molto nascosto sono,
chiuso in un segreto mille volte sigillato.

Silentium amoris è il vivere.

Sei tu, amico, un viandante
in me per caso perduto
come in oscura selva magica:
forse non più troverai la strada,
forse sorgerà anche in te
il fuoco vivo alto splendente
che tramuterà la terra
in visione e pellegrinaggio.

Non fuggirtene, chiedo tra me,
eppur dirlo non posso,
ché molte cose accadono
e la chiave avere è difficile
e chissà che tu non muoia domani.

Ma se puoi, resta,
prego tra me. Oppure
me ne andrò silenzioso.

Roses And Rue



To L. L.


Could we dig up this long-buried treasure,
Were it worth the pleasure,
We never could learn love's song,
We are parted too long.


Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead,
Could we live it all over again,
Were it worth the pain!


I remember we used to meet
By an ivied seat,
And you warbled each pretty word
With the air of a bird;


And your voice had a quaver in it,
Just like a linnet,
And shook, as the blackbird's throat
With its last big note;


And your eyes, they were green and grey
Like an April day,
But lit into amethyst
When I stooped and kissed;


And your mouth, it would never smile
For a long, long while,
Then it rippled all over with laughter
Five minutes after.


You were always afraid of a shower,
Just like a flower:
I remember you started and ran
When the rain began.


I remember I never could catch you,
For no one could match you,
You had wonderful, luminous, fleet,
Little wings to your feet.


I remember your hair - did I tie it?
For it always ran riot -
Like a tangled sunbeam of gold:
These things are old.


I remember so well the room,
And the lilac bloom
That beat at the dripping pane
In the warm June rain;


And the colour of your gown,
It was amber-brown,
And two yellow satin bows
From your shoulders rose.


And the handkerchief of French lace
Which you held to your face -
Had a small tear left a stain?
Or was it the rain?


On your hand as it waved adieu
There were veins of blue;
In your voice as it said good-bye
Was a petulant cry,


'You have only wasted your life.'
(Ah, that was the knife!)
When I rushed through the garden gate
It was all too late.


Could we live it over again,
Were it worth the pain,
Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead!


Well, if my heart must break,
Dear love, for your sake,
It will break in music, I know,
Poets' hearts break so.


But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell
God's heaven and hell.


Les Silhouettes



The sea is flecked with bars of grey,
The dull dead wind is out of tune,
And like a withered leaf the moon
Is blown across the stormy bay.


Etched clear upon the pallid sand
Lies the black boat: a sailor boy
Clambers aboard in careless joy
With laughing face and gleaming hand.


And overhead the curlews cry,
Where through the dusky upland grass
The young brown-throated reapers pass,
Like silhouettes against the sky.