【英文原著类】Flame and Shadow(火焰与阴影).pdf

Flame and Shadow
Flame and Shadow
By Sara Teasdale
To E.
"Recois la flamme ou l'ombre De tous mes jours."
1
Flame and Shadow
CHAPTER I
Blue Squills
How many million Aprils came Before I ever knew How white a
cherry bough could be, A bed of squills, how blue!
And many a dancing April When life is done with me, Will lift the
blue flame of the flower And the white flame of the tree.
Oh burn me with your beauty, then, Oh hurt me, tree and flower,
Lest in the end death try to take Even this glistening hour.
O shaken flowers, O shimmering trees, O sunlit white and blue,
Wound me, that I, through endless sleep, May bear the scar of you.
Stars
Alone in the night On a dark hill With pines around me Spicy and
still,
And a heaven full of stars Over my head, White and topaz And
misty red;
Myriads with beating Hearts of fire That aeons Cannot vex or tire;
Up the dome of heaven Like a great hill, I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I Am honored to be Witness Of so much majesty.
"What Do I Care?"
2
Flame and Shadow
What do I care, in the dreams and the languor of spring, That my
songs do not show me at all? For they are a fragrance, and I am a flint and
a fire, I am an answer, they are only a call.
But what do I care, for love will be over so soon, Let my heart have
its say and my mind stand idly by, For my mind is proud and strong
enough to be silent, It is my heart that makes my songs, not I.
Meadowlarks
In the silver light after a storm, Under dripping boughs of bright new
green, I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks Alone and high-
hearted as if I were a queen.
What have I to fear in life or death Who have known three things:
the kiss in the night, The white flying joy when a song is born, And
meadowlarks whistling in silver light.
Driftwood
My forefathers gave me My spirit's shaken flame, The shape of
hands, the beat of heart, The letters of my name.
But it was my lovers, And not