C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Invocation from ‘Miréio’

Translation of Harriet Waters Preston

I SING the love of a Provençal maid;

How through the wheat-fields of La Crau she strayed,

Following the fate that drew her to the sea.

Unknown beyond remote La Crau was she;

And I, who tell the rustic tale of her,

Would fain be Homer’s humble follower.

What though youth’s aureole was her only crown?

And never gold she wore, nor damask gown?

I’ll build her up a throne out of my song,

And hail her queen in our despisèd tongue.

Mine be the simple speech that ye all know,

Shepherds and farmer-folk of lone La Crau.

Methinks I see yon airy little bough:

It mocks me with its freshness even now;

The light breeze lifts it, and it waves on high

Fruitage and foliage that cannot die.

Help me, dear God, on our Provençal speech,

To soar until the birds’ own home I reach!

God of my country, who didst have thy birth

Among poor shepherds when thou wast on earth,

Breathe fire into my song! Thou knowest, my God,

How, when the lusty summer is abroad,

And figs turn ripe in sun and dew, comes he,—

Brute, greedy man,—and quite despoils the tree.

Yet on that ravaged tree thou savest oft

Some little branch inviolate aloft,

Tender and airy up against the blue,

Which the rude spoiler cannot win unto:

Only the birds shall come and banquet there,

When, at St. Magdalene’s, the fruit is fair.