Βιβλία σαν το «Τραγούδια της αθωότητας και της πείρας»

Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song—the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of the grass, the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death, dancing over the wide world, the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking all life with laughter, the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, and knows not a word.

“In a few cases only. Nothing will make me believe that an acre or so of concrete enclosure will make up to a wolf or a tiger-cat for the range of night prowling that would belong to it in a wild state. Think of the dictionary of sound and scent and recollection that unfolds before a real wild beast as it comes out from its lair every evening, with the knowledge that in a few minutes it will be hieing along to some distant hunting ground where all the joy and fury of the chase awaits it; think of the crowded sensations of the brain when every rustle, every cry, every bent twig, and every whiff across the nostrils means something, something to do with life and death and dinner.

The building to which the yard was attached, was two stories high, fronting on one of the public streets of Washington. Its outside presented only the appearance of a quiet private residence. A stranger looking at it, would never have dreamed of its execrable uses. Strange as it may seem, within plain sight of this same house, looking down from its commanding height upon it, was the Capitol. The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave’s chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol!

“When I was alive and had a human heart,” answered the statue, “I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot chose but weep.”

Ὅμως τὸ ἄπιστο φιλὶ νεκρὸ ἀνασηκόνεικαὶ ζωντανεύει τὸ κορμὶ ποὺ χῶμα τὸ πλακόνει.Ἀκούει μέσ’ στὸν ὕπνο του τὸν πρῶτο βυθισμένοςτῆς νύφης του τὸ φίλημα ὁ νειός ὁ πεθαμμένος·τὸν ὄρκο του θυμήθηκε κι’ ὁ τάφος του ἀνοίγει·σὲ μαῦρο ἀπάνω βρέθηκε, λάκκους σταυροὺς πηδάει,τὸν βλέπουν τ’ ἄστρα τρέμουνε, ἡ γῆ ζητεῖ νὰ φύγῃκαὶ χαλινάρι δὲν κρατεῖ· ὁ Μαῦρος ὁδηγάει·φεὺγει, πετᾷ· τὰ πέταλλα σπίθαις, φωτιαὶς σκορπᾶνεκαὶ φέγγουνε τὸ δρόμο τους· ἀλλοίμονο, ποῦ πᾶνε!

I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,As once Electra her sepulchral urn,And, looking in thine eyes, I overturnThe ashes at thy feet. Behold and seeWhat a great heap of grief lay hid in me,And how the red wild sparkles dimly burnThrough the ashen greyness. If thy foot in scornCould tread them out to darkness utterly,It might be well perhaps. But if insteadThou wait beside me for the wind to blowThe grey dust up—those laurels on thine head,O my Beloved, will not shield thee so,That none of all the fires shall scorch and shredThe hair beneath. Stand further off then! Go.