Tango
It seems I'm stuck in parody-land at the moment... (With thanks to Carly for these). :D







"Variations of an Air" G. K.Chesterton





Original:



Old King Cole

Was a merry old soul

And a merry old soul was he

He called for his pipe

and he called for his bowl

and he called for his fiddlers three






after Lord Tennyson:



Cole, that unwearied prince of Colchester,

Growing more gay with age and with long days

Deeper in laughter and desire of life

As that Virginian climber on our walls

Flames scarlet with the fading of the year;

Called for his wassail and that other weed

Virginian also, from the western woods

Where English Raleigh checked the boast of Spain,

And lighting joy with joy, and piling up

Pleasure as crown for pleasure, bade me bring

Those three, the minstrels whose emblazoned coats

Shone with the oyster-shells of Colchester;

And these three played, and playing grew more fain

Of mirth and music; till the heathen came

And the King slept beside the northern sea.





after W.B. Yeats:



Of an old King in a story

From the grey sea-folk I have heard

Whose heart was no more broken

Than the wings of a bird.



As soon as the moon was silver

And the thin stars began,

He took his pipe and his tankard,

Like an old peasant man.



And three tall shadows were with him

And came at his command;

And played before him for ever

The fiddles of fairyland.



And he died in the young summer

Of the world's desire;

Before our hearts were broken

Like sticks in a fire.





after Walt Whitman:



Me clairvoyant,

Me conscious of you, old camarado,

Needing no telescope, lorgnette, field-glass, opera-glass, myopic pince-nez,

Me piercing two thousand years with eye naked and not ashamed;

The crown cannot hide you from me,

Musty old feudal-heraldic trappings cannot hide you from me,

I perceive that you drink.

(I am drinking with you. I am as drunk as you are.)

I see you are inhaling tobacco, puffing, smoking, spitting

(I do not object to your spitting),

You prophetic of American largeness,

You anticipating the broad masculine manners of these States;

I see in you also there are movements, tremors, tears, desire for the melodious,

I salute your three violinists, endlessly making vibrations,

Rigid, relentless, capable of going on for ever;

They play my accompaniment; but I shall take no notice of any accompaniment;

I myself am a complete orchestra.

So long.




Комментарии
31.08.2005 в 20:18

Всему свое зелье
Все хороши, но Уитмен - :hlop: :super: :gigi:
01.09.2005 в 04:04

Tango
Yes, that was my favourite too. :laugh: