As thou slep'st 'neath the linden o'er-loathe to awake.

And brown are my feet now because the sun burneth

High up on the down-side amidst of the sheep,

And there in the hollow wherefrom the wind turneth,

Thou lay'st in my lap while I sung thee to sleep.

O friend of the earth, O come nigher and nigher,

Thou art sweet with the sun's kiss as meads of the May,

O'er the rocks of the waste, o'er the water and fire,

Will I follow thee, love, till earth waneth away.

Глава XIII книги первой

Clashed sword on shield

In the harvest field;

And no man blames

The red red flames,

War's candle-wick

On roof and rick.

Now dead lies the yeoman unwept and unknown

On the field he hath furrowed, the ridge he hath sown:

And all in the middle of wethers and neat

The maidens are driven with blood on their feet;

For yet 'twixt the Burg-gate and battle half-won

The dust-driven highway creeps uphill and on,

And the smoke of the beacons goes coiling aloft,

While the gathering horn bloweth loud, louder and oft.

Throw wide the gates

For nought night waits;

Though the chase is dead

The moon's o'erhead

And we need the clear

Our spoil to share.

Shake the lots in the helm then for brethren are we,

And the goods of my missing are gainful to thee.

Lo! thine are the wethers, and his are the kine;

And the colts of the marshland unbroken are thine,

With the dapple-grey stallion that trampled his groom;

And Giles hath the gold-blossomed rose of the loom.

Lo! leaps out the last lot and nought have I won,

But the maiden unmerry, by battle undone.

Глава XXXIV книги второй

Still now is the stithy this morning unclouded,

Nought stirs in the thorp save the yellow-haired maid

A-peeling the withy last Candlemas shrouded

From the mere where the moorhen now swims unafraid.

For over the Ford now the grass and the clover

Fly off from the tines as the wind driveth on;

And soon round the Sword-howe the swathe shall lie over,

And tomorrow at even the mead shall be won.

But the Hall of the Garden amidst the hot morning,

It drew my feet thither; I stood at the door,

And felt my heart harden 'gainst wisdom and warning

As the sun and my footsteps came on to the floor.

When the sun lay behind me, there scarce in the dimness

I say what I sought for, yet trembled to find;

But it came forth to find me, until the sleek slimness

Of the summer-clad woman made summer o'er kind.

There we the once-sundered together were blended,

We strangers, unknown once, were hidden by naught.

I kissed and I wondered how doubt was all ended,

How friendly her excellent fairness was wrought.

Round the hall of the Garden the hot sun is burning,

But no master nor minstrel goes there in the shade,

It hath never a warden till comes the returning,

When the moon shall hang high and all winds shall be laid.

Waned the day and I hied me afield, and thereafter

I sat with the mighty when daylight was done,

But with great men beside me, midst high-hearted laughter,

I deemed me of all men the gainfullest one.

To wisdom I hearkened; for there the wise father

Cast the seed of his learning abroad o'er the hall,

Till men's faces darkened, but mine gladdened rather

With the thought of the knowledge I knew over all.

Sang minstrels the story, and with the song's welling

Men looked on each other and glad were they grown,

But mine was the glory of the tale and its telling

How the loved and the lover were naught but mine own.

* * *

Leave we the cup!

For the moon is up,

And bright is the gleam

Of the rippling stream,

That runneth his road

To the old abode,

Where the walls are white

In the moon and the night;

The house of the neighbour that drave us away

When strife ended labour amidst of the hay,

And no road for our riding was left us but one

Where the hill's brow is hiding that earth's ways are done,

And the sound of the billows comes up at the last

Like the wind in the willows ere autumn is past.

But oft and again

Comes the ship from the main,

And we came once more

And no lading we bore

But the point and the edge,

And the ironed ledge,

And the bolt and the bow,

And the bane of the foe.

To the House 'neath the mountain we came in the morn,

Where welleth the fountain up over the corn,

And the stream is a-running fast on to the House

Of the neighbours uncunning who quake at the mouse,

As their slumber is broken; they know not for why;

Since yestreen was not token on earth or in sky.

Come, up, then up!

Leave board and cup,

And follow the gleam

Of the glittering stream

That leadeth the road

To the old abode,

High-walled and white

In the moon and the night;

Where low lies the neighbour that drave us away

Sleep-sunk from his labour amidst of the hay.

No road for our riding is left us save one,

Where the hills' brow is hiding the city undone,

And the wind in the willows is with us at last,

And the house of the billows is done and o'er-past.

Haste! mount and haste

Ere the short night waste,

For night and day,

Late turned away,

Draw nigh again

All kissing-fain;

And the morn and the moon

Shall be married full soon.

So ride we together with wealth-winning wand,

The steel o'er the leather, the ash in the hand.

Lo! white walls before us, and high are they built;