Sailing to Byzantium

Sailing to Byzantium is in ferneamd gedicht fan 'e hân fan 'e Ierske dichter William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). It ferhellet oer in reis nei Byzantium (oftewol Konstantinopel), mar brûkt dat gegeven as in metafoar foar in spirituële reis. De dichter ûndersiket yn dit fers syn ideeën en beprakkesaasjes oer de fraach wat stjerlikens, keunst en de minsklike geast mei-inoar te krijen hawwe. Troch de tapassing fan ferskate dichterlike techniken omskriuwt Yeats de oerdrachtlike reis fan in minske dy't syn eigen fisy fan in ivich libben en syn idee fan it paradys neistribbet. Sailing to Byzantium waard foar it earst publisearre yn 1928, yn 'e dichtbondel The Tower, en bestiet út fjouwer kûpletten yn ottava rima, elts besteande út acht regels mei tsien wurdlidden.

Tekst
Sailing to Byzantium

That is no country for old men. The young 
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
– Those dying generations – at their song, 
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, 
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. 
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect. 

An aged man is but a paltry thing, 
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress, 
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence; 
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall, 
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, 
And be the singing-masters of my soul. 
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity. 

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing, 
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; 
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come. 

Kategory:Literêr wurk fan William Butler Yeats
Kategory:Ingelsktalich gedicht
Kategory:Gedicht út 1928