THE PRAISE OF SPRING
From The Miracles of
our Lady
by: Gonzalo de Berceo (1180-1246)
- , GONZALO
de Berceo, in the gentle summertide,
- Wending upon a pilgrimage, came to a meadow's side;
- All green was it and beautiful, with flowers far and wide,--
- A pleasant spot, I ween, wherein the traveller might abide.
-
- Flowers with the sweetest odors filled all the sunny air,
- And not alone refreshed the sense, but stole the mind from
every care;
- On every side a fountain gushed, whose waters pure and fair,
- Ice-cold beneath the summer sun, but warm in winter were.
-
- There on the thick and shadowy trees, amid the foliage green,
- Were the fig and the pomegranate, the pear and apple seen;
- And other fruits of various kinds, the tufted leaves between,
- None were unpleasant to the taste and none decayed, I ween.
-
- The verdure of the meadow green, the odor of the flowers
- The grateful shadows of the trees, tempered with fragrant
showers,
- Refreshed me in the burning heat of the sultry noontide hours;
- Oh, one might live upon the balm and fragrance of those bowers!
-
- Ne'er had I found on earth a spot that had such power to
please,
- Such shadows from the summer sun, such odors on the breeze;
- I threw my mantle on the ground, that I might rest at ease,
- And stretched upon the greensward lay in the shadow of the
trees.
-
- There soft reclining in the shade, all cares beside me flung,
- I heard the soft and mellow notes that through the woodland
rung;
- Ear never listened to a strain, for instrument or tongue,
- So mellow and harmonious as the songs above me sung.
--Translated by H. W. Longfellow
"The Praise of Spring"
is reprinted from Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from
the Spanish by English and North American Poets. Ed. Thomas
Walsh. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. |
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