There is a change — and I am poor; Your love hath been, not long ago, A fountain at my fond heart's door, Whose only business was to flow; And flow it did: not taking heed Of its own bounty, or my need. What happy moments did I count! Blest was I then all bliss above! Now, for that consecrated fount Of murmuring, sparkling, living love, What have I? shall I dare to tell? A comfortless and hidden well. A well of love — it may be deep — I trust it is, — and never dry: What matter? if the waters sleep In silence and obscurity. — Such change, and at the very door Of my fond heart, hath made me poor.
Увы, лишился я всего, Богатый — обеднел я вмиг. Близ двери сердца моего Еще недавно бил родник Твоей любви. Свежа, чиста, Вода сама лилась в уста. Как счастлив был в ту пору я! Играя, в пламени луча Кипела, искрилась струя Животворящего ключа. Но вот беда — ручей иссох, Теперь на дне его лишь мох. Родник любви, он не иссяк, — Но что мне в том, когда навек Вода ушла в подземный мрак И тихо спит, прервав свой бег? Отныне горек мой удел: Я был богат, но обеднел.
GIPSIES
Yet are they here the same unbroken knot Of human Beings, in the self-same spot! Men, women, children, yea the frame Of the whole spectacle the same! Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light, Now deep and red, the colouring of night; That on their Gipsy-faces falls, Their bed of straw and blanket-walls. — Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours are gone, while I Have been a traveller under open sky, Much witnessing of change and cheer, Yet as I left I find them here! The weary Sun betook himself to rest; — Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west, Outshining like a visible God The glorious path in which he trod. And now, ascending, after one dark hour And one night's diminution of her power, Behold the mighty Moon! this way She looks as if at them — but they Regard not her: — oh better wrong and strife (By nature transient) than this torpid life; Life which the very stars reprove As on their silent tasks they move! Yet, witness all that stirs in heaven or earth! In scorn I speak not; — they are what their birth And breeding suffer them to be; Wild outcasts of society!
