[节选]Jerusalem Delivered

XV

Then to Tortosa's confines swiftly sped

The sacred messenger, with headlong flight;

Above the eastern wave appeared red

The rising sun, yet scantly half in sight;

Godfrey e'en then his morn-devotions said,

As was his custom, when with Titan bright

Appeared the angel in his shape divine,

Whose glory far obscured Phoebus' shine.



XVI

"Godfrey," quoth he, "behold the season fit

To war, for which thou waited hast so long,

Now serves the time, if thou o'erslip not it,

To free Jerusalem from thrall and wrong:

Thou with thy Lords in council quickly sit;

Comfort the feeble, and confirm the strong,

The Lord of Hosts their general doth make thee,

And for their chieftain they shall gladly take thee.



XVII

"I, messenger from everlasting Jove,

In his great name thus his behests do tell;

Oh, what sure hope of conquest ought thee move,

What zeal, what love should in thy bosom dwell!"

This said, he vanished to those seats above,

In height and clearness which the rest excel,

Down fell the Duke, his joints dissolved asunder,

Blind with the light, and strucken dead with wonder.



XVIII

But when recovered, he considered more,

The man, his manner, and his message said;

If erst he wished, now he longed sore

To end that war, whereof he Lord was made;

Nor swelled his breast with uncouth pride therefore,

That Heaven on him above this charge had laid,

But, for his great Creator would the same,

His will increased: so fire augmenteth flame.



XIX

The captains called forthwith from every tent,

Unto the rendezvous he them invites;

Letter on letter, post on post he sent,

Entreatance fair with counsel he unites,

All, what a noble courage could augment,

The sleeping spark of valor what incites,

He used, that all their thoughts to honor raised,

Some praised, some paid, some counselled, all pleased.



XX

The captains, soldiers, all, save Boemond, came,

And pitched their tents, some in the fields without,

Some of green boughs their slender cabins frame,

Some lodged were Tortosa's streets about,

Of all the host the chief of worth and name

Assembled been, a senate grave and stout;

Then Godfrey, after silence kept a space,

Lift up his voice, and spake with princely grace:



XXI

"Warriors, whom God himself elected hath

His worship true in Sion to restore,

And still preserved from danger, harm and scath,

By many a sea and many an unknown shore,

You have subjected lately to his faith

Some provinces rebellious long before:

And after conquests great, have in the same

Erected trophies to his cross and name.



XXII

"But not for this our homes we first forsook,

And from our native soil have marched so far:

Nor us to dangerous seas have we betook,

Exposed to hazard of so far sought war,

Of glory vain to gain an idle smook,

And lands possess that wild and barbarous are:

That for our conquests were too mean a prey,

To shed our bloods, to work our souls' decay.



XXIII

"But this the scope was of our former thought, --

Of Sion's fort to scale the noble wall,

The Christian folk from bondage to have brought,

Wherein, alas, they long have lived thrall,

In Palestine an empire to have wrought,

Where godliness might reign perpetual,

And none be left, that pilgrims might denay

To see Christ's tomb, and promised vows to pay.