Lời ru giấc nồng Nurse’s song

Nurse’s song

It’s better not to ask, not to deny.
But soothe the baby with a lullaby.
Nor hint his legacy of grace and grief.
Of state and sorrow, bearing and belief.

The palace duties and the palace joys;
The Dauphin howling at his emerald toys
The Infanta in a grape-skin velvet dressed.
Low cut to show the glamour of her breast;

The ebony and ivory of the table
In circled candle-light; the hand scarce able.
To lift the monstrous amethyst, which afar.
Shines to its trembling like a dancing star;

The polished galleries on a summer night.
Ablaze like rivers in the thunderous light
(Still and unwinking stood the halberdiers.
As the cloaked figure passed with the sound of tears);

The chapel where, by chantry screen, there sings.
A youth leading responses to the king’s.
Obsequies, whose lineaments he bore.
He sings in sweet soprano everymore