TÊTE-D'OR
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY
JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY
NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON - HUMPHREY MILFORD - OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXIX
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BYYALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Table of Content
Dedication
O day! Having felt, like the touch of water upon the head,
The desire to be alone and to weep where none could find me,
Laughing I walked where the fragrance of the riotous garden spread
Its honeyed share, and left the flowers and the trees behind me.
And from behind me, borne from the breathing depths, as I went,
With eyes half-closed, there came to fall upon my hair
The holy benediction of things most excellent,
And seeds and shreds of down were softly mingled there.
Behind me the eternal woods uplifted leafy domes,
Behind me banks of blossoms, packed to the brim with sweets,
Towards the expectant nose, prepared to breathe their balms,
Like some strong nuptial body upraised their ardent heats.
Roses and yellow asphodels that sturdy stems upbear,
In the mellow disarray of their golden panoply,
Shone forth like lamps that gleam through the white and liquid air
When but a single diamond adorns the sleeping sky.
For like one who stops and turns and listens to the sea
When to his ear is borne its low, mysterious whisper,
Above the shining earth, beaming resplendently,
I saw that star, First-Born of the dawning Future, Vesper!
O only child of the King, among so many slaves!
Pilgrim unique o'er city paths seeking the distant sea!
Planet of morn, re-born in evening's dusky caves!
Star anadyomene in the depth of the garden's greenery!
Mysteriously o'er the hour a subtle influence reigns,
Deepening peace, maintaining, with strange and mystic art,
The secret length of the days that are gone where only the honey remains
Of animate life, enhived in this everlasting heart.
Feebly the dying breeze stirs in its dark retreat.
O joy supreme, O love beyond what words can say!
Over this sordid world that has so enslaved my feet
Endureth the ineffable unfolding of the day!
In such an hour there passes in laughing ecstasy
The poet, sprung from a race obscure, who never shall grow old,
His golden dream fulfills itself in the twilight. Silently
He is merged in the springtime of the gods, the eternal age of gold!
Gazing into the eye of the world with an eye on fire to see,
As one gapes for the juicy plums that the topmost branches bear,
As, 'twixt his dusky brides, hard Jacob bowed the knee
To gain from the hand of a father the blessing on an heir,
I live! Come, rain and storm! I shall not be unmanned!
Bearing my destiny, aware of the term of Fate's delay,
Laughing I walked beneath the grim and terrifying land
Of burning constellations that cross a milky way.
Dramatis Personae
Simon Agnel, later Tête-d'or, afte