文章基本信息

A Week in Florence

Bly, Robert

The donkey has led us through so many cultures!

Virgin after virgin has been born! Fra Lippi's voice

Is one ray of light coming down on the suffering.

Clams have survived so many long nights alone.

Why shouldn't Giotto stand for hours in his workshop?

Go ahead; fast in the night, and weep at dawn.

The green Arno carries the old blood of insects.

Angry men in the Baptistry have stabbed each

Other long before Dante went away weeping.

Mary's face shines so sweetly. Why? The hair

Of the Paleolithic elephants falls only once over

Their girlish eyes; then they enter eternal darkness.

The young woman is studying and praying in a room

Open to the Tuscan air. But the angel's wings

Do not fit all the way inside the house.

Robert, if you've seen even one brown donkey's ear

That Giotto painted, that's enough. You don't need to gaze

Through the window at the fields planted for Jesus to see.