The song of Magali, the cunning fairy,
Who love had shunned by all devices airy.
A bird, a vine, a sunbeam she became,
Yet fell herself, love’s victim all the same!
“Queen of my soul!” sang Noro, and the rest
Fell straightway to their work with twofold zest;
And as, when one cicala doth begin
Its high midsummer note, the rest fall in
And swell the chorus, so the damsels here
Sang the refrain with voices loud and clear:—
I37
“Magali, queen of my soul,
The dawn is near!
Hark to my tambourine,
Hide not thy bower within,
Open and hear!II
“The sky is full of stars,
And the wind soft;
But, when thine eyes they see,
The stars, O Magali,
Will pale aloft!”III
“Idle as summer breeze
The tune thou playest!
I’ll vanish in the sea,
A silver eel will be,
Ere thou me stayest.”IV
“If thou become an eel,
And so forsake me,
I will turn fisher too
And fish the water blue
Until I take thee!”V
“In vain with net or line
Thou me implorest:
I’ll be a bird that day,
And wing my trackless way
Into the forest!”VI
“If thou become a bird,
And so dost dare me,
I will a fowler be,
And follow cunningly
Until I snare thee!”VII
“When thou thy cruel snare
Settest full surely,
I will a flower become,
And in my prairie home
Hide me securely!”VIII
“If thou become a flower,
Before thou thinkest
I’ll be a streamlet clear,
And all the water bear
That thou, love, drinkest!”IX
“When thou, a stream, dost feed
The flower yonder,
I will turn cloud straightway,
And to America
Away I’ll wander.”X
“Though thou to India
Fly from thy lover,
Still I will follow thee:
I the sea-breeze will be
To waft thee over!”XI
“I can outstrip the breeze
Fast as it flieth:
I’ll be the swift sun-ray
That melts the ice away
And the grass drieth!”XII
“Sunlight if thou become,
Are my wiles ended?
I’ll be a lizard green,
And quaff the golden sheen
To make me splendid!”XIII
“Be thou a Triton, hid
In the dark sedges!
I’m the moon by whose ray
Fairies and witches pay
Their mystic pledges!”XIV
“If thou the moon wilt be
Sailing in glory,
I’ll be the halo white
Hovering every night
Around and o’er thee!”XV
“Yet shall thy shadowy arm
Embrace me never!
I will turn virgin rose,
And all my thorns oppose
To thee for ever!”XVI
“If thou become a rose,
Vain too shall this be!
Seest thou not that I,
As a bright butterfly,
Freely may kiss thee?”XVII
“Urge, then, thy mad pursuit:
Idly thou’lt follow!
I’ll in the deep wood bide;
I’ll in the old oak hide,
Gnarlèd and hollow.”XVIII
“In the dim forest glade
Wilt thou be hidden?
I’ll be the ivy-vine,
And my long arms entwine
Round thee unbidden!”XIX
“Fold thine arms tightly, then:
Clasp the oak only!
I’ll a white sister be!
Far off in St. Blasi,
Secure and lonely!”XX
“Be thou a white-veiled nun
Come to confession,
I will be there as priest,
Thee freely to divest
Of all transgression!”
The startled women their cocoons let fall.
“Noro, make haste!” outspake they one and all:
“What could our hunted Magali answer then?
A nun, poor dear, who had already been
A cloud, a bird, a fish, an oak, a flower,
The sun, the moon, the stream, in one short hour?”
“Ah, yes!” said Noro, “I the rest will sing:
She was, I think, the cloister entering;
And that mad fowler dared to promise her
He would in the confessional appear,
And shrive her. Therefore hear what she replies:
The maid hath yet another last device:”—
XXI
“Enter the sacred house!
I shall be sleeping,
Robed in a winding-sheet,
Nuns at my head and feet,
Above me weeping.”XXII
“If thou wert lifeless dust,
My toils were o’er:
I’d be the yawning grave,
Thee in my arms to have
For evermore!”XXIII
“Now know I thou art true,
Leave me not yet!
Come, singer fair, and take,
And wear it for my sake,
This annulet!”XXIV
“Look up, my blessed one,
The heaven scan!
Since the stars came to see
Thee, O my Magali,
They are turned wan!”
A silence fell, the sweet song being ended:
Only with the last moving notes had blended
The voices of the rest. Their heads were drooping,
As they before the melody were stooping,
Like slender reeds that lean and sway for ever
Before the flowing eddies of a river.
Till Noro said, “Now is the air serene;
And here the mowers come, their scythes to clean
Beside the vivary brook. Mirèio, dear,
Bring us a few St. John’s Day apples here.
And we will add a little new-made cheese,
And take our lunch beneath the lotus-trees.”
Canto IV
The Suitors
When violets are blue in the blue shadows
Of the o’erhanging trees,
The youth who stray in pairs about the meadows
Are glad to gather these.
When peace descends upon the troubled Ocean,
And he his wrath forgets,
Flock from Martigue the boats with wing-like motion,
The fishes fill their nets.
And when the girls of Crau bloom into beauty
(And fairer earth knows not),
Aye are there suitors ready for their duty
In castle and in cot.
Thus to Mirèio’s home came seeking her
A trio notable—a horse-tamer,
A herdsman, and a shepherd. It befell
The last was first who came his tale to tell.
Alari was his name, a wealthy man—
He had a thousand sheep, the story ran.
The same were wont to feed the winter long
In rich salt-pastures by Lake Entressen.
And at wheat-boiling time, in burning May,
Himself would often lead his flock, they say,
Up through the hills to pastures green and high:
They say moreover, and full faith have I,
That ever as St. Mark’s came round again
Nine noted shearers Alari would retain
Three days to shear his flock. Added to these
A man to bear away each heavy fleece,
And a sheep-boy who back and forward ran
And filled the shearer’s quickly emptied can.
But when the summer heats began to fail
And the high peaks to feel the snowy gale,
A stately sight it was that flock to see
Wind from the upper vales of Dauphiny,
And o’er the Crau pursue their devious ways,
Upon the toothsome winter grass to graze.
Also to watch them there where they defile
Into the stony road were
