William Allingham
Fecha de nacimiento: 19 de marzo de 1824, Ballyshannon, Irlanda
Fecha de la muerte: 18 de noviembre de 1889, Hampstead, Reino Unido
Una Lápida
Lejos de la iglesia cava su tumba,
En un montículo verde detrás de las hojas,
En el oeste y el ocaso, en un mar de nubes rojas,
Allí erige su roca húmeda,
Con letras y números mortales,
Un arpa y un manojo de flores
Cortando en la tarde todos los colores;
Entonces la deja libre en los vientos que soplan,
Al paciente musgo que se arrastra, que devora,
La abandona en las alas errantes,
En los pasos furtivos de los caminantes.
Las Hadas
Arriba en la aireada montaña,
Abajo en la sombría cañada,
Nos desafiamos a la caza
Por temor a la pequeña gente,
Diminuta gente, buena gente,
Marchando unidos, diligentes,
¡Chaquetas verdes, gorros rojos
Y blancas plumas relucientes!
Abajo en la orilla rocosa
Algunos hacen su hogar,
Viven en crujientes chozas,
Junto al arroyo o el mar;
Otros en las tenebrosas cañas
Del lago negro en la montaña,
Con sapos como guardianes,
Perros de una vigilia interminable.
Arriba en la sierra
El viejo rey se sienta;
Es tan viejo y maliciento
Que casi a perdido el ingenio.
Con un puente de niebla rosa
Sobre el Columbkill siempre cruza,
En su majestuosa jornada
Por Slieveleague y Rosses;
O persiguiendo la música
De las frías noches estrelladas,
Buscando incesante a su Reina
Bajo la alegre aurora boreal.
La pequeña Bridget allí se ha perdido
Por siete largos años,
Cuando ella volvió del rebaño
Todos sus amigos se habían ido.
Ellos tomaron su ligera espalda
Entre el crepúsculo y la mañana,
Pensaron que dormía con rubor,
Pero yacía muerta de dolor.
Ellos la tienen desde entonces
En las profundidades del lago,
Sobre un lecho de olas veloces,
Velando hasta que descanse.
Junto a la ladera del monte altivo,
A través del musgo desnudo,
Han plantado árboles y espinos,
Y allí danzan esos pies duros.
Si algún hombre atrevido
Se acerca con orgullo y sigilo,
Habrá de caer entre los espinos,
Y encontrará un oscuro destino.
Arriba en la aireada montaña,
Abajo en la sombría cañada,
Nos desafiamos a la caza
Por temor a la pequeña gente,
Diminuta gente, buena gente,
Marchando unidos, diligentes,
¡Chaquetas verdes, gorros rojos
Y blancas plumas relucientes!
La capilla en ruinas
En la costa, un charco de tierra
Rodea una capilla arruinada,
Custodiada por altas hierbas;
Dónde los días y las noches pasan
Sin oír ningún sonido humano.
Lamida por mares solitarios,
Sacudida por centinelas arbóreos,
Besada por la brisa salada;
Los días y las noches pasan
En la infinita melodía del silencio.
Y cuando los vientos atrapan
Un silencio más muerto que cualquier sueño,
Los crepúsculos se arrastran,
Y los días y las noches pasan
Hacia la nada más profunda.
Las ruinas vacías se funden
En el completo dominio de la Naturaleza,
Unidas con la semilla y el grano,
Así como los días y las noches pasan
Soñando con las lluvias del verano.
Lágrimas sepulcrales fueron sembradas aquí;
Ahora las tumbas también están muertas;
Inmóviles bajo incontables ramas desiertas,
Como los días y las noches pasan
Bajo el curso soñoliento de las estrellas.
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The Fairies
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He's nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music
On cold starry nights
To sup with the Queen
Of the gay Northern Lights.
They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought that she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag-leaves,
Watching till she wake.
By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn-trees
For pleasure here and there.
If any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather!
A Seed
See how a Seed, which Autumn flung down,
And through the Winter neglected lay,
Uncoils two little green leaves and two brown,
With tiny root taking hold on the clay
As, lifting and strengthening day by day,
It pushes red branchless, sprouts new leaves,
And cell after cell the Power in it weaves
Out of the storehouse of soil and clime,
To fashion a Tree in due course of time;
Tree with rough bark and boughs' expansion,
Where the Crow can build his mansion,
Or a Man, in some new May,
Lie under whispering leaves and say,
"Are the ills of one's life so very bad
When a Green Tree makes me deliciously glad?"
As I do now. But where shall I be
When this little Seed is a tall green Tree?
The Lepracaun Or Fairy Shoemaker
Little Cowboy, what have you heard,
Up on the lonely rath's green mound?
Only the plaintive yellow bird
Sighing in sultry fields around,
Chary, chary, chary, chee-ee! -
Only the grasshopper and the bee? -
'Tip-tap, rip-rap,
Tick-a-tack-too!
Scarlet leather, sewn together,
This will make a shoe.
Left, right, pull it tight;
Summer days are warm;
Underground in winter,
Laughing at the storm! '
Lay your ear close to the hill.
Do you not catch th etiny clamour,
Busy click of an elfin hammer.
Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill
As he merrily plies his trade?
He's a span
And a quarter in height,
Get him in sight, hold him tight,
And you're a made
Man!
You watch your cattle the summerday,
Sup on potatoes, sleep in the hay;
how would you like to roll in your carriage,
Look for a duchess's daughter in marriage?
Seize the shoemaker - then you may!
'Big boots a -hunting,
Sandals in the hall,
White for a wedding feast,
Pink for a ball.
This way, that way,
So we makea shoe;
Getting rich every stitch,
Tick-a-tack too! '
Nine and ninety treasure crocks
This keen miser fairy hath,
Hid in the mountains, woods and rocks,
Ruin and round-tow'r, cave and rath,
And where cormorants build;
From times of old
Guarded by him;
Each of them fill'd
Full to the brim
With gold!
I caught him at work one day, myself,
In the castle ditch where fox-glove grows, -
A wrinkled, wizen'd and bearded Elf,
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,
Silver buckles to his hose,
Leather apron - shoe in his lap -
'Rip-rap, tip-tap,
Tick-tack-too!
(A grasshopper on my cap!
Away the moth flew!)
Buskins for a fairy prince,
Brogues for his son -
Pay me well, pay me well,
When the job is done! '
The rogue was mine, beyond a doubt.
I stared at him, he stared at me;
'Servant Sir! ''Humph' says he,
And pull'd a snuff-box out.
He took a long pinch, look'd better pleased,
The queer little Lepracaun;
Offer'd the box with a whimsical grace, -
Pouf! He flung the dust in my face,
And while I sneezed,
Was gone!