تو که ذونی، به مو چاره بیاموز...

مجله‌ی ادبی جُغد در دوره‌ی کوتاهی بین سال‌های 1919 تا 1923 توسط رابرت گِرِیوز -شاعر و رمان‌نویس انگلیسی- انتشار می‌یافت. شعر زیر هم گویا مربوط به شماره‌ی اکتبر 1919 این نشریه می‌شود. شعر را به زبان فارسی برگردانده‌ام (در ادامه‌ی مطلب) که البته به هیچ وجه آهنگ و استواری نسخه‌ی اصلی را ندارد.

    ADVICE TO LOVERS

    I knew an old man at a fair
    Who made it his twice-yearly task
    To clamber on a cider cask
    And cry to all the lovers there: —

    ‘Lovers of all lands and all time
    Preserve the meaning of my rhyme,
    Love is not kindly nor yet grim
    But does to you as you to him.

    Whistle, and Love will come to you:
    Hiss, and he fades without a word:
    Do wrong, and he great wrong will do:
    Speak, and he tells what he has heard.

    Then all you lovers take good heed,
    Vex not young Love in thought or deed:
    Love never leaves an unpaid debt,
    He will not pardon, nor forget.’

    The old man’s voice was kind yet loud
    And this shows what a man was he,
    He’d scatter apples to the crowd
    And give great draughts of cider free.
    (Robert Graves)

photo: Neil Perin