Sunday, August 06, 2006

济慈和朗费罗Endymion

霍桑夫人从爱默生那里借来一幅画,以此为题,画了她平生最后一幅画。画的名字叫ENDYMION,月亮女神惠顾的一位凡间男子。有些象七仙女下凡的意思,也让人想到后羿和嫦娥奔月。但西方人歌颂的是他们的形体美和性爱,中国人歌颂的是女子的顺从和勤劳,总脱不了穷汉子巴望天上掉馅饼的寒碜味儿。;)

霍桑夫人性格活泼,她将自己的新婚生活很大胆地写在她给家人的信中,结果挨了老妈的骂,生性害羞持重的老公也说,那些东西是只能给我们自己看的。:)

济慈写过一首同名长诗,一千来行;朗费罗有一首短一点儿的,抄在这里。

Endymion
by Micha F. Lindemans

Endymion was a handsome shepherd boy of Asia Minor, the mortal lover of the moon goddess Selene. Each night he was kissed to sleep by her. She begged Zeus to grant him eternal life so she might be able to embrace him forever. Zeus complied, putting Endymion into eternal sleep and each night Selene visits him on Mt. Latmus, near Milete, in Asia Minor. The ancient Greeks believed that his grave was situated on this mountain. Selene and Endymion have fifty daughters.

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Endymion
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The rising moon has hid the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,
Lie on the landscape green,
With shadows brown between.

And silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana in her dreams,
Had dropt her silver bow
Upon the meadows low.

On such a tranquil night as this,
She woke Endymion with a kiss,
When sleeping in the grove,
He dreamed not of her love.

Like Dian's kiss, unasked, unsought,
Love gives itself, but is not bought;
Nor voice, nor sound betrays
Its deep, impassioned gaze.

It comes -- the beautiful, the free,
The crown of all humanity --
In silence and alone
To seek the elected one.

It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep,
Are life's oblivion, the soul's sleep,
And kisses the closed eyes
Of him who slumbering lies.

O, weary hearts! O, slumbering eyes!
O, drooping souls whose destinies
Are fraught with fear and pain,
Ye shall be loved again!

No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.

Responds -- as if with unseen wings,
An angel touched its quivering strings;
And whispers, in its song,
Where hast thou stayed so long?

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John Keats (1795–1821). The Poetical Works of John Keats. 1884.

32. Endymion

http://www.bartleby.com/126/32.html
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Mezentius
by Micha F. Lindemans
The king of the Etruscan Caere (Cerveteri) and father of Lausus. Because of his cruelty he was exiled from Caere and he fled to Turnus, whom he helped in his resistance against the Trojans when they were invading Latium. He was killed in battle by Aeneas.
Virgil VII, 648; VIII, 482; X 786, 907.

Mezentian Marriage: Emerson's dark view on marriages. :))

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