弗朗西斯·威廉·劳德代尔·亚当斯

在这里你会发现亨利·乔治。诗人弗朗西斯·威廉·劳德代尔·亚当斯

亨利·乔治。

我是来买书的。那是在一条狭窄安静的街道上的一家商店,我知道他们在这里保存着这些社会主义书籍。我进入。一切都是光秃秃的,但干净整洁。货架上摆放着未售出的商品;柜台上放着几张纸。到处都挂着印刷品和日历。我敲了一下,一个年轻的女孩从内门走了出来。她有一张清纯的脸;我看到她既不美丽,也不可爱,也没有魅力,但是,当你的眼睛碰到那双像山泉一样纯净的灰色明亮的眼睛时,你想:“他是个聪明的人,看了又撒谎!” I asked her for the book. . . . We spoke a little. Her words were as her face was, as her eyes. Yes, she'd read many books like this of mine: Also some poets, Shelley, Byron too, And Tennyson, but 'poets only dreamed!' Thus, then, we talked, until by chance I spoke A phrase and then a name. 'Twas 'Henry George.' Her face lit up. O it was beautiful, Or never woman's face was! 'Henry George?' She said. And then a look, a flush, a smile, Such as sprung up in Magdalenè's cheek When some voice uttered Jesus, made her angel. She turned and pointed up the counter. I, Loosing mine eyes from that ensainted face, Looked also. 'Twas a print, a common print, The head and shoulders of a man. She said, Quite in a whisper: 'That's him, Henry George!' Darling, that in this life of wrong and woe, The lovely woman-soul within you brooded And wept and loved and hated and pitied, And knew not what its helplessness could do, Its helplessness, its sheer bewilderment ? That then those eyes should fall, those angel eyes, On one who'd brooded, wept, loved, hated, pitied, Even as you had, but therefrom had sprung A hope, a plan, a scheme to right this wrong, And make this woe less hateful to the sun ? And that pure soul had found its Master thus To listen to, remember, watch and love, And trust the dawn that rose up through the dark: O this was good For me to see, as for some weary hopeless Longer and toiler for 'the Kingdom of Heaven' To stand some lifeless twilight hour, and hear, There in a dim-lit house of Lazarus, Mary who said: 'Thus, thus he looked, he spake, The Master!'? So to hear her rapturous words, And gaze upon her up-raised heavenly face!