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Эдвард Лир
Эдвард Лир – один из величайших английских поэтов. И это несмотря на всю «несерьезность» его творчества. Его книжки «нонсенсов» (т. е. чепухи) произвели революцию не только в поэзии, но и в литературе в целом, породив так называемый жанр абсурда. Среди учеников и последователей Лира были и Льюис Кэрролл, и Огдан Нэш, и Кит Гилберт Честертон, и многие другие. Книга представляет собой билингву, то есть русский и английский текст даются параллельно.
Эдвард Лир
Из полного собрания бессмыслиц
Nonsense verse and songs
Self-portrait of the laureate of nonsense
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough.
His mind is concrete and fastidious,
His nose is remarkably big;
His visage is more of less hideous,
His beard it resembles a wig.
He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
Leastways if you reckon two thumbs,
Long ago he was one of the singers,
But now he is one of the dumbs.
He sits in a beautiful parlour,
With hundreds of books on the wall;
He drinks a great deal of Marsala,
But never gets tipsy at all.
He has many friends, laymen and clerical;
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.
When he walks in a waterproof white,
The children run after him so!
Calling out, “He's come out in his night-
Gown, that crazy old Englishman, oh!”
He weeps by the side of the ocean,
He weeps on the top of the hill;
He purchases pancakes and lotion,
And chocolate shrimps from the mill.
He reads but he cannot speak Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger-beer:
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!
The Owl and the Pussy-cat
I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
II
Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?”
Thwy sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
III
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one
shilling
Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married
next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
The Children of the Owl and the Pussy-cat
Our mother was the Pussy-cat,
Our father was the Owl,
And so we’re partly little beasts
And partly little fowl,
The brothers of our family
Have feathers and they hoot,
While all the sisters dress in fur
And have long tails to boot.
We all believe that little mice,
For food are singularly nice.
Our mother died long years ago.
She was a lovely cat
Her tail was 5 feet long, and grey
With stripes, but what of that?
In Sila forest on the East
Of far Calabria’s shore
She tumbled from a lofty tree —
None ever saw her more.
Our owly father long was ill
From sorrow and surprise,
But with the feathers of his tail
He wiped his weeping eyes.
And in the hollow of a tree
In Sila’s inmost maze
We made a happy home and there
We pass our obvious days.
From Reggian Cosenza
Many owls about us flit
And bring us worldly news
For which we do not care a bit.
We watch the sun each morning rise,
Beyond Tarento’s strait;
We go out pleasure seeking,
Before it gets too late;
And when the evening shades begin
To lengthen from the trees
Yoy’ll find us merrily dancing
As sure as bees is bees.
We wander up and down the shore
Or tumble over head and heels,
But never, never more,
Can see the far Gromboolian plains
Or weep as we could once have wept
O’er many a vanished scene:
This is the way our father moans —
He is so very green.
Our father still preserves his voice,
And when he sees a star
He often sings to the strings of that
Original guitar.
The pot in which our parents took
The honey in their boat,
But all the money has been spent,
Beside the 5-pound note.
The owls who come and bring us nows
Are often sent away
Because we take no interest
In poltix of the day.
The Duck and the Kangaroo
I
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo,
“Good gracious! how you hop!
Over the fields and the water too,
As if you never would stop!
My life is a bore in this nasty pond,
And I long to go out in the world beyond!
I wish I could hop like you!”
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo.
II
“Please give me a ride on your back!”
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo.
“I would sit quite still, and say nothing but
“Quack”,
Te whole of the long day through!
And we’d go to the Dee, and the Jelly Bo Lee,
Over the land, and over the sea; —
Please take me a ride! O do!”
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo.
III
