我常闻名葛露水:
我尝路经旷野
天明时偶然遇见
这孤独的小孩。
无伴,露水绝无相识,
她家在一荒凉的沼泽
——一颗最稀有的珍珠
偶尔掉落人家呵!
精灵的雏麋嬉嬉茸茸,
玲珑的野兔逐逐猭猭,
可怜露水儿的香踪
已经断绝了尘缘。
“今晚看来要起风涛,
你须镇上去走一遭,
携一个灯,儿呀!去照
你娘雪地里回家才好。”
“爹呀!儿愿意极了,
此刻时光还早——
那教堂钟才打两下,
那边月儿倒起来了!”
露水喜孜孜出门上道,
好比个小鹿儿寻流逐草;
那小足在雪地里乱蹦,
溅起一路的白玉烟梨花脑。
那无情的风涛偏早到,
可怜她如何奋斗得了;
她爬过了田低和山高,
但她目的地总到不了。
那可怜的父母终夜
四处里号呼寻找;
凶惨的黑夜无听无见,
失望的双亲泪竭声槁。
天明了!老夫妇爬上山额,
望见了他们的沼泽,
又望见那座木桥
离家约半里之遥。
他们一头哭一头走,哭道:
“我们除非是在天上相会了。”
——娘在雪里忽然发现,
小小的足印,可不是露水的吗?
于是从山坡下直下去,
他们踪迹那小鞋芒;
穿过一架破碎的荆篱,
缘着直长的石墙;
他们过了一座田,
那足迹依旧分明;
他们又向前,足迹依然,
最后走到了桥边。
河滩雪里点点足印,
不幸的父母好不伤心;
足迹点点又往前引,
引到了——断踪绝影。
——但是至今还有人说,
那孩子依旧生存;
说在寂寞的荒野
有时见露水照样孤行。
她跋涉苦辛,前进前进,
不论甘苦,总不回顾,
她唱一支孤独的歌,
在荒野听如风筝。
OFT I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at break of day
The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
— The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!
You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.
"Tonight will be a stormy night —
You to the town must go;
And take a lantern, Child, to light
Your mother through the snow."
"That, Father! will I gladly do:
'Tis scarcely afternoon —
The minster-clock has just struck two,
And yonder is the moon!"
At this the Father raised his hook,
And snapped a faggot-band;
He plied his work; — and Lucy took
The lantern in her hand.
Not blither is the mountain roe:
With many a wanton stroke
Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.
The storm came on before its time:
She wandered up and down;
And many a hill did Lucy climb:
But never reached the town
The wretched parents all that night
Went shouting far and wide;
But there was neither sound nor sight
To serve them for a guide.
At day-break on a hill they stood
That overlooked the moor;
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.
They wept — and, turning homeward, cried,
"In heaven we all shall meet;"
— When in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.
Then downwards from the steep hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn hedge,
And by the long stone-wall;
And then an open field they crossed:
The marks were still the same;
They tracked them on, nor ever lost;
And to the bridge they came.
They followed from the snowy bank
Those footmarks, one by one,
Into the middle of the plank;
And further there were none!
— Yet some maintain that to this day
She is a living child;
That you may see sweet Lucy Gray
Upon the lonesome wild.
O'er rough and smooth she trips along,
And never looks behind;
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.