To Cassandra
To Cassandra
Original Text
Wilfrid Thorley, Fleurs de Lys: A Book of French Poetry Freely Translated into English Verse. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. 67-68. Internet Archive.
1O Mayde more tender yet
2 Than shy sweet buds that wake
3On rose-trees dewy wet
4 When first the daye doth break,
5That from the thorny speare
6Half green, half red doe peere;
7Faster than ivy clyngs
8 With supple stems entwyn'd
9Round the stout oak in ryngs
10 A hundred-fold that bynd
11With their fond arms and slym
12The whole wide girth of hym,
13Round me, O faire and fond,
14 Let thyne arms make a ryng;
15Link fast the gentle bond
16 Of thy sweet tetheryng;
17Let kysses givn and ta'en
18For evermore remayne.
19Not tyme nor envious dread
20 Of other love more meet
21Shall fynd me sunderéd
22 From thy sweet lips, my sweet.
23Thus kissynge will we dwell
24Till lyfe bid us farewell.
25The same moon, the same daye,
26 And the same hour we two
27Shall wander far awaye,
28 Death's pallid house to view,
29And those faire fields out-spread
30For lovers haply wed.
31Love's self amid the flow'rs
32 Of everlastynge sprynge
33Shall watch these loves of ours,
34 Under the green boughs clynge;
35And we shall knowe the good
36Of gentle loverhood.
37In fields of sedge and thyme,
38 Along the level grounde,
39With many a mazy chyme
40 Accordant airs shall sounde;
41While, featly to these tunes
42A dancer swayes and swoones.
43There heaven's unclouded space
44 Shynes ever with clear light;
45No serpent thro' the maze
46 pits venom in its spite;
47For ever in those trees
48Birds synge their melodies;
49Soft wyndes for ever goe
50 With gentle sound a-styr,
51For ever laurels throwe
52 Their coolynge shadowe there;
53There lovely flowers do swaye
54That never fade awaye.
55Somewhere in the wyde space
56 This happye garden covers
57We two shall fynde our place
58 Amid the throngynge lovers,
59Unwearied as these
60In love's sweet ecstasies.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
Data entry: Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012