Mashairi Mawili ya Edmund Spencer

Edmund Spencer ni mmoja kati ya washairi maarufu kabisa katika ki-Ingereza. Alizaliwa London mwaka 1552, akafariki 1599. Ni sahihi kusema kwamba shairi maarufu kabisa la Edmund Spencer ni utenzi uitwao "The Faerie Queene." Lakini Edmund Spencer ni maarufu pia kwa utunzi wa mashairi ya muundo wa "sonnet." Mwanatamthilia Shakespeare, ambaye alizaliwa mwaka 1564 na kufariki mwaka 1616, naye alikuwa mtunzi maarufu wa "sonnet."

Hapa naleta "sonnet" mbili za Edmund Spencer ambazo zinabainisha sanaa ya mshairi huyu. Ki-Ingereza cha mashairi haya ni cha zama zile, lakini ukikisoma kwa utulivu na umakini, utakielewa.

Katika "Ye Tradefull Merchants," mshairi anawasuta wafanya biashara wanaosafiri mbali kutafuta utajiri. Anawaambia kuwa mpenzi wake ana utajiri wa uzuri kuliko hata vito wanavyovihangaikia hao wafanya biashara. Utajiri wa mpenzi huyo si tu wa kimaumbile, bali pia akili.

Katika "Trust Not the Treason," mshairi anatahadharisha kuhusu ghilba na udanganyifu wa mwanamke, tusije tukanaswa katika mitego ya  mwenye ghilba na udanganyifu, kwani mitego hiyo huwa kama ndoana ya dhahabu ambayo imebeba chambo cha kuwanasia samaki wajinga, na mwisho wake ni balaa. Sherti niseme kuwa, kwa mtazamo wa leo, wengi tunakerwa na dhana hii ya kwamba mwanamke ni chanzo cha matatizo.

Sio jambo jema kuuwasilisha utungo wa fasihi kwa muhtasari. Ni kosa lililojadiliwa kinaganaga katika insha maarufu ya Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase," ambayo imo katika kitabu chake kiitwacho The Well Wrought Urn. Utungo wa fasihi unajieleza wenyewe kikamilifu. Ni lazima kuusoma wote kikamilifu na kwa umakini. Muhtasari ni hujuma dhidi ya utungo.

Nimalizie kwa kusema kuwa ninavutiwa na wazo la kuyatafsiri mashairi haya kwa ki-Swahili, kama chemsha bongo. Si kazi rahisi, lakini inavutia.
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(1) YE TRADEFULL MERCHANTS

Ye tradefull merchants, that with weary toyle,
Do seeke most pretious things to make your gain,
And both the Indias of their treasures spoile,
What needeth you to seeke so farre in vaine?
For loe! my love doth in her selfe containe
All this worlds riches that may farre be found:
If saphyres, loe! her eies be saphyres plaine;
If rubies, loe! hir lips be rubies sound;
If pearles, hir teeth be pearls, both pure and round;
If yvorie, her forhead yvorie weene;
If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground;
If silver, her faire hands are silver sheene:
     But that which fairest is but few behold,
     Her mind, adornd with vertues manifold.


(2) TRUST NOT THE TREASON

Trust not the treason of those smyling lookes,
Until ye have theyr guylefull traynes well tryde:
For they are lyke but unto golden hookes
That from the foolish fish theyr bayts do hyde:
So she with flattring smyles weake harts doth guyde
Unto her love, and tempte to theyr decay;
Whome, being caught, she kills with cruell pryde,
And feeds at pleasure on the wretched pray.
Yet even whylst her bloody hands them slay,
Her eyes looke lovely, and upon them smyle,
That they take pleasure in her cruell play,
And, dying, doe themselves of payne beguyle.
     O mighty charm! which makes men love theyr bane,
     And thinck they dy with pleasure, live with payne.