George Herbert

Alas, poor Death! Where is thy glory?
Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting?Alas, poor mortal, void of story!
Go spell and read how I have killed thy King.Poor Death! And who was hurt thereby?
Thy curse being laid on Him makes thee accurst.Let losers talk, yet thou shalt die;…

I travell'd on, seeing the hill, where lay
My expectation.
A long it was and weary way:
The gloomy cave of DesperationI left on th' one, and on the other side

Sweetest of sweets,
I thank you: when displeasure
Did through my bodie wound my minde,
You took me thence; and in your house of pleasure

Алтарь разбит - но строю вновь, Христос:
Из сердца - он, его цемент - из слез.
А камни высек Ты, мой Бог, -
Простой строитель бы не смог.…

I Got me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.The sunne arising in the East,…

Do not beguile my heart,
Because thou art
My power and wisdome. Put me not to shame,
Because I am…

Когда б сквозь дольный шум ветров и вод
Под небосвод
Вознёсся от земли мой скорбный вздох,
Тогда б он мог…

MOney, thou bane of blisse, & sourse of wo,
Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine?
I know thy parentage is base and low:
Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine.Surely thou didst so little contribute…

O Day most calm, most bright The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
Th' endorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a friend, and with his bloud;
The couch of Time;

Lord, how I am all ague, when I seek
What I have treasur'd in my memory!
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.…

When first my lines of heav'nly joyes made mention,
Such was their lustre, they did so excell,
That I sought out quaint words and trim invention;
My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell,

My heart did heave, and there came forth, O God!
By that I knew that thou wast in the grief,
To guide and govern it to my relief,
Making a scepter of the rod:…

Sweetest of sweets, I thank you: when displeasure
Did through my body wound my mind,
You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure
A dainty lodging me assigned.Now I in you without a body move,…

The harbingers are come.
See, see their mark;
White is their colour, and behold my head.
But must they have my brain? must they dispark Those sparkling notions, which therein were bred?

Мой Боже, в некий час
Помыслил я: царь строит свой дворец,
Чтоб в нем жилище обрести.
Но можно ль краше храм найти,…

A wreathed garland of deserved praise,
Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,
I give to thee, who knowest all my wayes,
My crooked winding wayes, wherein I live,

My God,
I heard this
That none doth build a stately habitation
But he that means to dwell therein.

How fresh,
O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! ev'n as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasures bring.

О свежесть! Будто небеса
Влюбились в землю! День хорош,
Но плачет в сумерках роса:
Ведь ты умрешь...О роза, как ты ни горда,…

Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell?
I humbly crave,
Let me once know.
I sought thee in a secret cave

Молитва - церкви пир, как ангел, древний;
Дар божий - Дух, стремимый к Богу снова;
Раскрыта мысль-паломница вполне в ней;
Земле и небу мера - трость Христова;Стрела - в мир горний, грешным - примиренье;…

Who reade a chapter when they rise,
Shall ne're be troubled with ill eyes.
A poore man's rod, when thou dost ride,
Is both a weapon and a guide.

If as the windes and waters here below
Do flie and flow,
My sighs and tears as busy were above;
Sure they would move And much affect thee, as tempestuous times Amaze poore mortals, and object their crimes.

LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,…