Английские эпиграммы и эпитафии XIV-XIX веков в переводах автора

By toil our strong forefathers earn'd their food,

Toil strung their nerves, and purified their blood;

But we, their sons, a pamper'd race of men,

Are dwindled down to three score years and ten.

Better to seek for health in fields unbought,

Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.

The wise for health on exercise depend,

God never made his work for man to mend.

John Dryden (1631-1701)

Трудом наш предок пищу добывал,

Тем самым плоть и нервы укреплял.

Его потомки, в неге праздных дней,

Теперь мы стали во сто крат слабей.

Ищи здоровье средь полей, лесов –

Беги от шарлатанов-докторов!

Крепи трудом изнеженную плоть –

О ней не позаботится Господь.

Джон Драйден (1631-1701)

Milton compared with Homer and Virgil

(Under a picture of Milton in the fourth edition of "Paradise Lost") [14 - Под изображением Мильтона в четвёртом издании «Потерянного рая».]

Three poets, in three distant ages born,

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn;

The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd;

The next, in majesty; in both the last.

The force of nature could no further go;

To make a third, she joined the former two.

John Dryden

Мильтон в сравнении с Гомером и Виргилием

О, Греция, Италия, Британия!

Поэтов трёх так чтите вы названия.

Так, первый – величавый, гордый слог;

Второй полётом духа столь высок.

Природа вовсе дальше не мудрила

И в третьем щедро двух соединила.

Джон Драйден

On a fly drinking out of his cup

Busy, curious, thirsty fly!

Drink with me, and drink as I.

Freely welcome to my cup,

Could'st thou sip and sip it up:

Make the most of life you may;

Life is short and wears away.

Both alike are mine and thine,

Hastening quick to their decline,

Thine's a summer, mine no more

Though repeated to three score.

Three score summers, when they're gone,

Will appear as short as one.

William Oldys (1696-1761)

Мухе, пьющей из моего бокала