Tuesday 26 March 2013

Friends, Romans, Countrymen


Friends, Enfieldians, Taps family, lend me your ears!
I come to bid farewell to Iryna, not to praise her.
The evil that people do lives after them,
The good is oft fogotten with their parting:
So let it be with Iryna. The noble Les and Sue
Hath told you that Iryna was rude;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Iryna answered it.
Here, under leave of Les and Sue and the rest -
For Les is an honourable man,
Come I to speak in goodbye to Iryna.
She was my friend, faithful and just to me,
But Les says she was selfish,
And Les is an honourable man.
But Iryna hath bought many a round in the Perryman,
Did this in Iryna seem selfish and mean?
When the regulars have cried at last orders, Iryna hath wept:
Meanness should be made of sterner stuff;
Yet Les says she was mean,
And Les is an honourable man.
You all did see that on St Paddy's day
She thrice bought rounds of vodka jelly,
Was this meanness?
Yet Les says she was mean,
And sure he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Les and Sue and Walking Stick Tony spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love her once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for her departure now?
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me,
My heart leaves through the door with Iryna,
And I must pause till it come back to me