Thomas Hardy (Томас Гарди (Харди))
A Parting-Scene
The two pale women cried, But the man seemed to suffer more, Which he strove hard to hide. They stayed in the waiting-room, behind the door, Till startled by the entering engine-roar, As if they could not bear to have unfurled Their misery to the eyes of all the world. A soldier and his young wife Were the couple; his mother the third, Who had seen the seams of life. He was sailing for the East I later heard. – They kissed long, but they did not speak a word; Then, strained, he went. To the elder the wife in tears ‘Too long; too long!’ burst out. (’Twas for five years.)
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