"George Gordon, Lord Byron. The deformed transformed " - читать интересную книгу автора

Stran.
Were I to taunt a buffalo with this
Cloven foot of thine, or the swift dromedary
With thy Sublime of Humps, the animals
Would revel in the compliment. And yet
Both beings are more swift, more strong, more mighty
In action and endurance than thyself,
And all the fierce and fair of the same kind
With thee. Thy form is natural: 'twas only
Nature's mistaken largess to bestow
The gifts which are of others upon man.

Arn.
Give me the strength then of the buffalo's foot,
When he spurns high the dust, beholding his
Near enemy; or let me have the long
And patient swiftness of the desert-ship,
The helmless dromedary!-and I'll bear
Thy fiendish sarcasm with a saintly patience.

Stran.
I will.

Arn. (with surprise).
Thou canst?

Stran.
Perhaps. Would you aught else?

Arn.
Thou mockest me.

Stran.
Not I. Why should I mock
What all are mocking? That 's poor sport, methinks.

To talk to thee in human language (for
Thou canst not yet speak mine), the forester
Hunts not the wretched coney, but the boar,
Or wolf, or lion-leaving paltry game
To petty burghers, who leave once a year
Their walls, to fill their household cauldrons with
Such scullion prey. The meanest gibe at thee,-
Now I can mock the mightiest.

Arn.
Then waste not
Thy time on me: I seek thee not.