Jón á Bægisá - 01.12.2010, Side 91

Tekist d um Thomas Gray
15) Some village Hampden,1 that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.
19) Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
20) Yet ev’n these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
21) Their name, their years, spelt by th’ unlettered Muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply;
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.2
1 John Hampden (1594-1643) var þingmaður sem barðist af hörku gegn einræðistilburðum
Karls I. Englandskonungs.
2 Texti kvæðisins er tekinn úr John Bradshaw, útg., Gray’s Poems, London: Macmillan,
19^2, bls. 34-36. Skýringar eru einnig að mestu úr sama riti bls. ioi-in.
á .jde/yeijfi — Ég kann að þýða; það kunnið þið ekki.
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