Сонет N 44 Детский танец

Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

How healthily their feet upon the floor

Strike down! These are no spirits, but a band

Of children, surely, leaping hand in hand

Into the air in groups of three and four,

Wearing their silken rags as if they wore

Leaves only and light grasses, or a strand

Of black elusive seaweed oozing sand,

And running hard as if along a shore.

I know how lost forever, and at length

How still these lovely tossing limbs shall lie,

And the bright laughter and the panting breath;

And yet, before such beauty and such strength,

Once more, as always when the dance is high,

I am rebuked that I believe in death.