The Bells

Краткая антология английской поэзии с русскими переводами и комментариями

PART IX

A true poet has a sharpened, subtle, exquisite perception of cruelty, injustice, humiliation, hypocrisy, suffering, insincerity, pretence, falsity and is endowed with the talent of putting his feelings into words. And the effect is electrifying. His words embodied in rhythm, every sentence in which he clothes his thought evoke an instant response of readers and listeners – laughter and tears, thought and compassion, delight and shock, sometimes all fused together.
When I was in the fifth form at school I remember the lesson when our history teacher recited a poem for us. We experienced a shock. There was a minute of silence. We didn’t feel like speaking. We felt like thinking. We were impressed, astounded. She asked those who liked the poem to learn it by heart. I certainly did and still remember it word perfect. We were sure then that it was a Lermontov’s poem. But it wasn’t. It was Byron’s.

CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE
(an extract)

I see before me the Gladiator lie:
He leans upon his hand – his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,
And his drooped head sinks gradually low –
And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
The arena swims around him – he is gone,
Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.

He heard it, but he heeded not – his eyes
Were with his heart – and that was far away;
He recked not of life he lost, nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay –
There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother – he, their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday –
All this rushed with his blood – Shall he expire
And unavenged? – Arise! ye Goths, and glut your ire!

But here, where Murder breathed her bloody steam;
And here, where buzzing nations choked the ways,
And roared or murmured like a mountain stream
Dashing or winding as its torrent strays;
Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise
Was death or life, the playthings of a crowd,
My voice sounds much – and fall the stars faint rays
On the arena void – seats crush'd – walls bow'd –
And galleries, where my steps seem echoes strangely loud.

George Gordon Byron, 1836

Сражённый гладиатор предо мной.
Он оперся на локоть. Мутным оком
Глядит он вдаль, ещё борясь с судьбой,
Сжимая меч в бессилии жестоком.
Скудея, каплет вязким чёрным соком,
Подобно первым каплям грозовым,
Из раны кровь. Уж он в краю далёком,
Уж он не раб. В тумане цирк пред ним,
Он слышит, как вопит и рукоплещет Рим, –

Не всё ль равно! И жизнь и эти крики –
Всё так ничтожно! Он в родном краю.
Вот отчий дом в объятьях повилики.
Шумит Дунай. Он видит всю семью,
Играющих детей, жену свою.
А он, отец их, пал под свист презренья,
Приконченный в бессмысленном бою!
Уходит кровь, уходят в ночь виденья...
О, скоро ль он придет – ваш, готы, праздник мщенья!

Здесь, где прибой народов бушевал,
Где крови пар носился над толпою,
Где цирк ревел, как в океане шквал,
Рукоплеща минутному герою,
Где жизнь иль смерть хулой иль похвалою
Дарила чернь, – здесь ныне мёртвый сон.
Лишь гулко над ареною пустою
Звучит мой голос, эхом отражён,
Да звук шагов моих в обломках будит стон.

Перевод В. Левика

УМИРАЮЩИЙ ГЛАДИАТОР

Ликует буйный Рим... торжественно гремит
Рукоплесканьями широкая арена:
А он – пронзённый в грудь, – безмолвно он лежит,
Во прахе и крови скользят его колена...
И молит жалости напрасно мутный взор:
Надменный временщик и льстец его Сенатор
Венчают похвалой победу и позор...
Что знатным и толпе сражённый гладиатор?
Он презрен и забыт... освистанный актёр.

И кровь его течёт – последние мгновенья
Мелькают, – близок час... Вот луч воображенья
Сверкнул в его душе... Пред ним шумит Дунай...
И родина цветёт... свободный жизни край;
Он видит круг семьи, оставленный для брани
Отца, простёршего немеющие длани,
Зовущего к себе опору дряхлых дней...
Детей играющих – возлюбленных детей.
Все ждут его назад с добычею и славой...
Напрасно – жалкий раб, – он пал, как зверь лесной,
Бесчувственной толпы минутною забавой...
Прости, развратный Рим, – прости, о край родной...

Перевод М.Ю. Лермонтова

Explanatory Notes and Vocabulary:

subtle    delicate
perception    the ability to notice things that are not obvious to ordinary people
to be endowed with smth быть наделённым чем-либо
to put feelings into words выразить чувства словами
to embody    ~ to express
to evoke an instant response (reaction) вызвать отклик
to feel like doing smth хотеть что-то сделать

Sharing Ideas

1.    How does a poet perceive life? How does his perception of life differ from that of an ordinary person?
2.    What talent is a true poet endowed with?
3.    What makes the effect of poetry electrifying?
4.    Read the English and the Russian variants of “I see before me the Gladiator lie…”
5.    Compare Lermontov’s and Levik’s variants.

Read the text and answer the questions.

1. Why were gladiator shows so popular with ancient Romans?
2. What is the essence of of Cicero’s message?

“Bread and circuses” – the ancient Romans demanded. According to Juvenal the Roman mob longed for two things only – free bread and entertainment.

The interior of the Colosseum in Rome as it is today, with the floor surface removed. The Colosseum contained everything necessary for the magnificent spectacles which kept the Roman masses contented. There were cages for animals and mechanical elevators for lifting them to the floor of the arena.
The Colosseum could hold some 50,000 spectators. Special seating areas were reserved for the Emperor, for other dignitaries and for the Vestal Virgins. The seats in these areas were cushioned.

The amphitheatre provided the widest range of entertainment, although the best always ended in death. People came flocking from around Rome for a really big show and lodged in tents pitched along the road. Tacitus complained that children learnt about gladiators and races when they were still in the womb and talked about nothing else in the classroom. The violence was an outlet for the passions of the mob that would otherwise have been turned against the State.

The gladiators were usually run by private contractors and were carefully trained in special schools. They were generally slaves, though many were criminals and some were even free men who paid for the “privilege” because they were down on their luck and hoped to make a reputation for themselves. The amphitheatre was also a recognised way to get rid of large numbers of unwanted prisoners.

There were a few dissident voices. It is not surprising to find the voice of Seneca among them. His views were unusually humane and his Stoic philosophy profits enormously from that humanity:

“You ask me to say what you should consider it particularly important to avoid. My answer is this: a mass crowd... Nothing is more ruinous to the character as sitting away one’s time at a show – for it is then, through the medium of entertainment, that vices creep into one with more than usual ease. What do you take me to mean? That I go home more selfish, more self-seeking and more self-indulgent? Yes, and what is more, a person crueller and less humane through having been in contact with human beings. I happened to go to one of these shows at the time of the lunch-hour interlude, expecting there to be some light and witty entertainment then, some respite for the purpose of affording people’s eyes a rest from human blood. Far from it. All the earlier contests were charity in comparison. The nonsense is dispensed with now: what we have now is murder pure and simple. The combatants have nothing to protect them; their whole bodies are exposed to the blows; every thrust they launch gets home. A great many spectators prefer this to the ordinary matches and even to the special, popular demand ones. And quite naturally. There are no helmets and no shields repelling weapons. What is the point of armour? Or of skill? All that sort of thing just makes the death slower that is coming. In the morning men are thrown to the lions and the bears: but it is the spectators they are thrown to in the lunch hour. The spectators insist that each on killing his man shall be thrown against another to be killed in his turn; and the eventual victor is reserved by them for some other form of butchery; the only exit for the contestants is death. Fire and steel keep the slaughter going. And all this happens while the arena is virtually empty.

“‘But he was a highway robber, he killed a man.” And what of it? Granted that as a murderer he deserved this punishment, what have you done, you wretched fellow, to deserve to watch it? “Kill him! Flog him! Burn him! Why does he run at the other man’s weapon in such a cowardly way? Why isn’t he less half-hearted about killing? Why isn’t he a bit more enthusiastic about dying? Whip him forward to get his wounds! Make them each offer the other a bare breast and trade blow for blow on them.” And when there is an interval in the show: “Let’s have some throats cut in the meantime, so that there’s something happening!’ Come now, I say, surely you people realise – if you realise nothing else – that bad examples have a way of recoiling on those who set them? Give thanks to the immortal gods that the men to whom you are giving this lesson in cruelty are not in a position to profit from it.”

to flock if people flock to a particular place or event, a very large number of them go there because it is interesting or attractive.
to lodge ~ to live, ~ to stay
womb a woman’s womb is a part inside the body where a baby grows before birth
violence behaviour which is meant to hurt or kill people
otherwise иначе Why was violence approved of by the state of ancient Rome?
to run ~ to manage
though хотя
to get rid of when you get rid of something you don’t want you dispose of it or throw it away
dissident critical
profit from to benefit from
to avoid if you avoid doing something, you make an effort not to do it
What did Seneca (ancient Rome philosopher) advise his friend to avoid? Why?
for так как
then тогда
it is then…that именно тогда
to creep into one to move slowly into somebody
self-seeking selfish
self-indulgent you do things that only you enjoy
human beings people
respite rest
charity ~ virtue, ~ good, ~ tolerant attitude to people
to dispense with something to stop using it
combatant someone who takes part in fighting
thrust a sudden forceful movement forward
to get home попасть в цель
helmet шлем
shield щит
to repell to fight against
point sense – смысл
armour a special metal clothing that soldiers used to wear
on killing убив (on + Ving – сделав)
shall ~ must
in his turn в свою очередь
eventual final
butchery the cruel killing of a lot of people, animals
exit way out
contestant a person who takes part in a competition
slaughter butchery
What is the topical sentence of the paragraph?
granted is true
to deserve the punishment заслужить наказание
wretched fellow a miserable man
coward one who is afraid
half-hearted one who shows little or no enthusiasm
to whip to beat
to trade blow for blow осыпать ударами
meantime two events occuring at the same time
to set an example подать пример
to recoil on somebody to harm somebody
immortal one who “lives” forever

By Ekaterina Gvozdeva

to be continued