Искусствоед
W. H. Auden
Look, Stranger! (1936)
XXIV
O for doors to be open and an invite with gilded edges
To dine with Lord Lobcock and Count Asthma on the
platinum benches,
With somersaults and fireworks, the roads and the
smacking kisses -
Cried the cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And Garbo's and Cleopatra's wits to go astraying,
In a feather ocean with me to go fishing and playing,
Still jolly when the cock has burst himself with crowing -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And to stand on green turf among the craning yellow faces,
Dependent on the chestnut, the sable, the Arabian horses,
And me with a magic crystal to foresee their places -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And this square to be a deck, and these pigeons sail to rig
And to follow the delicious breeze like a tantony pig
To the shaded feverless islands where the melons are big -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And these shops to be turned to tulips in a garden bed,
And me with my stick to thrash each merchant dead
As he pokes from a flower his bald and wicked head -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And a hole in the bottom of heaven, and Peter and Paul
And each smug surprised saint like parachutes to fall,
And every one-legged beggar to have no legs at all -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
Look, Stranger! (1936)
XXIV
O for doors to be open and an invite with gilded edges
To dine with Lord Lobcock and Count Asthma on the
platinum benches,
With somersaults and fireworks, the roads and the
smacking kisses -
Cried the cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And Garbo's and Cleopatra's wits to go astraying,
In a feather ocean with me to go fishing and playing,
Still jolly when the cock has burst himself with crowing -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And to stand on green turf among the craning yellow faces,
Dependent on the chestnut, the sable, the Arabian horses,
And me with a magic crystal to foresee their places -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And this square to be a deck, and these pigeons sail to rig
And to follow the delicious breeze like a tantony pig
To the shaded feverless islands where the melons are big -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And these shops to be turned to tulips in a garden bed,
And me with my stick to thrash each merchant dead
As he pokes from a flower his bald and wicked head -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.
And a hole in the bottom of heaven, and Peter and Paul
And each smug surprised saint like parachutes to fall,
And every one-legged beggar to have no legs at all -
Cried the six cripples to the silent statue,
The six beggared cripples.