Thomas Hardy /徐志摩

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928 / Dorchester / England)

近90歲都還可以寫詩 徐志摩(在英國曾專程搭火車拜訪之)的年齡少他一半多的時候
翻譯他83/86歲的生日詩 陸小曼說譯得還可以.....可惜這些中英文文稿待查

有意思的是 蔣復璁先生說胡適是徐的唯一知音
胡徐兩人在這方面的文學喜號/人生觀等 似乎相差甚大

Today is Thomas Hardy's 168th birthday.  Let's take a few moments to 
share this moving tribute to him from a fellow poet.

With Good Wishes,
Betty


    Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy

Is it birthday weather for you, dear soul?
Is it fine your way,
With tall moon-daisies alight, and the mole
Busy, and elegant hares at play
By meadow paths where once you would stroll
In the flush of day?

I fancy the beasts and flowers there beguiled
By a visitation
That casts no shadow, a friend whose mild
Inquisitive glance lights with compassion,
Beyond the tomb, on all of this wild
And humbled creation.

It's hard to believe a spirit could die
Of such generous glow,
Or to doubt that somewhere a bird-sharp eye
Still broods on the capers of men below,
A stern voice asks the Immortals why
They should plague us so.

Dear poet, wherever you are, I greet you.
Much irony, wrong,
Innocence you'd find here to tease or entreat you,
And many the fate-fires have tempered strong,
But none that in ripeness of soul could meet you
Or magic of song.

Great brow, frail form—gone.  Yet you abide
In the shadow and sheen,
All the mellowing traits of a countryside
That nursed your tragi-comical scene;
And in us, warmer-hearted and brisker-eyed
Since you have been.
                                     Cecil Day-Lewis

This poem was published in Victorian Poetry, 17: 1-2 (1979) 65.

---