Вилл Аллен Друмгул. Стройка

Building The Bridge

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man", said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide, —
Why build you this bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come", he said,
"There followeth after me to-day
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

Will Allen Dromgoole
(1898)


Will Allen Dromgoole (October 26, 1860 – September 1, 1934) was an author and poet born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She wrote over 7,501 poems; 5,000 essays; and published thirteen books. She was renowned beyond the South; her poem "The Bridge Builder" was often reprinted. It remains quite popular. The final stanza of the poem appears on a plaque at the Bellows Falls, Vermont Vilas Bridge, spanning the Connecticut River between southern Vermont and New Hampshire...хх
из Википедии, прим.


Стройка

Старик в дороге одинокой
пришёл к угрюмому потоку,
что мчал широкой, дикой прорвой–
и пересёк их, пусть неспоро,
умело, впрочем, даже смело.
Тем день свершился. Вечерело.
Старик стал строить мост на диво
насельцам тамошним, ревнивым
к нему, прохожему чужому.
Они ему: "Что нам? на что мы?
Ты переправился– и с Богом
ступай как шёл своей дорогой."
Он им: "Теперь не одинок я.
За ночью в будущность востоков,
друзья, грядущим ходокам
я начал стройку– кончить вам."

перевод с английского Терджимана Кырымлы