作者william1109 (一顆荔枝三把火)
看板poetry
標題The magical horn of the young --- 11 of 12
時間Sat Mar 29 11:02:57 2003
"In praise of high intelligence"
Once upon a time in a deep valley
The cuckoo and the nightingale
Between them ,ade a wager
Which of them could sing the finer song.
Whomsoever skill or fortune favored
He could have the mastery.
The cuckoo said, "If it please you
I have already chosen the judge."
And he straightway named the donkey!
"For", said he, "he has two big ears,
All the better to mark what is bad
And tell it apart from what is good.
He commanded them to sing.
And the nightingale sang so sweetly.
The donkey spoke: "This is too intricate for me.
Hee-haw. I cannot grasp it at all."
Then quickly the cuckoo began
his song through thirds and fourths and fifths.
It pleased the ass. He just said, "Wait
While I pronounce my verdict.
Nightingale, you have sung well;
But you, cucjoo, have sung a fine chorale
And you keep the strictest measure.
Ispeak from the height of a great intellect
And though it should cost me a whole country
I judge you to be the winner.
Cuckoo, cuckoo, hee-haw."
--
if music be the food of love,
tho' yet the treat is only sound.
Sure I must perish by your charms,
unless you save me in your arms.
---- Heveningham/Weichin Chen
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