你是我的朋友，我就是那个跟公爵说话的人。我也帮助公爵夫人摆脱了他的枷锁;我的朋友，故事从头到尾都是这样的!2我们的国家是一个伟大的荒野国家:如果你爬到我们城堡的顶端，我看你的眼睛停不下来;因为当你走过玉米地，那里没有葡萄园，羊群聚集，牧羊场通向牛场，牛场通向空地，空地通向山脚下，在那里，以葬礼般的步伐，庄严而缓慢地，一排接一排，松树向上爬，像黑人牧师一样向上爬，又向下爬到另一边，到另一个更大、更荒凉的地方，那是一片广阔的、阴沉的、被烧毁的平原，有许多矿脉，是铁挖的，铜炼的;向右看，向左看，向前方看，——他们在下面开采，在上面冶炼，铜矿石和铁矿石，锻炉和熔炉铸模和熔化，等等，越来越多，直到最后，作为一个边界带，来到了伟大海岸的盐沙灰土，——整个都是我们公爵的国家。3我出生的日子和这位公爵出生的日子一样——(噢，这首歌唱道，我还没老!) In the castle where the other Duke was--- (When I was happy and young, not old!) I in the kennel, he in the bower: We are of like age to an hour. My father was huntsman in that day; Who has not heard my father say That, when a boar was brought to bay, Three times, four times out of five, With his huntspear he'd contrive To get the killing-place transfixed, And pin him true, both eyes betwixt? And that's why the old Duke would rather He lost a salt-pit than my father, And loved to have him ever in call; That's why my father stood in the hall When the old Duke brought his infant out To show the people, and while they passed The wondrous bantling round about, Was first to start at the outside blast As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn Just a month after the babe was born. ``And,''quoth the Kaiser's courier, ``since ``The Duke has got an heir, our Prince ``Needs the Duke's self at his side: '' The Duke looked down and seemed to wince, But he thought of wars o'er the world wide, Castles a-fire, men on their march, The toppling tower, the crashing arch; And up he looked, and awhile he eyed The row of crests and shields and banners Of all achievements after all manners, And ``ay,''said the Duke with a surly pride. The more was his comfort when he died At next year's end, in a velvet suit, With a gilt glove on his hand, his foot In a silken shoe for a leather boot, Petticoated like a herald, In a chamher next to an ante-room, Where he breathed the breath of page and groom, What he called stink, and they, perfume: ---They should have set him on red Berold Mad with pride, like fire to manage! They should have got his cheek fresh tannage Such a day as to-day in the merry sunshine! Had they stuck on his fist a rough-foot merlin! (Hark, the wind's on the heath at its game! Oh for a noble falcon-lanner To flap each broad wing like a banner, And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!) Had they broached a white-beer cask from Berlin ---Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine Put to his lips, when they saw him pine, A cup of our own Moldavia fine, Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel And ropy with sweet,---we shall not quarrel. IV. So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess Was left with the infant in her clutches, She being the daughter of God knows who: And now was the time to revisit her tribe. Abroad and afar they went, the two, And let our people rail and gibe At the empty hall and extinguished fire, As loud as we liked, but ever in vain, Till after long years we had our desire, And back came the Duke and his mother again. V. And he came back the pertest little ape That ever affronted human shape; Full of his travel, struck at himself. You'd say, he despised our bluff old ways? ---Not he! For in Paris they told the elf Our rough North land was the Land of Lays, The one good thing left in evil days; Since the Mid-Age was the Heroic Time, And only in wild nooks like ours Could you taste of it yet as in its prime, And see true castles, with proper towers, Young-hearted women, old-minded men, And manners now as manners were then. So, all that the old Dukes had been, without knowing it, This Duke would fain know he was, without being it; 'Twas not for the joy's self, but the joy of his showing it, Nor for the pride's self, but the pride of our seeing it, He revived all usages thoroughly worn-out, The souls of them