The melody upon clear strings inflected
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
Ezra-Pound-Provenca-English
Canzon That my heart is half afraid
For the fragrance on him laid; Even so love's might amazes !
Man's love follows many faces,
My love only one face knoweth;
Towards thee only my love floweth,
And outstrips the swift stream's paces. Were this love well here displayed,
As flame flameth 'neath thin jade
Love should glow through these my phrases.
HI
Though I Ve roamed through many places, None there is that my heart troweth
Fair as that wherein fair groweth
One whose land here interlaces
Tuneful words, that I Ve essayed. Let this tune be gently played Which my voice herward upraises.
IV
If my praise her grace effaces,
Then 't is not my heart that showeth, But the skilless tongue that soweth Words unworthy of her graces. Tongue, that hath me so betrayed, Were my heart but here displayed, Then were sung her fitting praises.
NOTE. The form and measure are those of Piere Vidal's " Ab ValentirvasmeVaire" Thesongisfitonlytobesung,and is not to be spoken.
70
? CANZON: OF INCENSE
[To this form sings Arnault Daniel, with seven stanzas instead of five. ]
gracious ways,
O Lady of my heart, have O'er all my thought their golden glamour cast;
As amber torch-flames, where strange men-at-arms Tread softly 'neath the damask shield of night,
Rise from the flowing steel in part reflected, So on my mailed thought that with thee goeth,
Though dark the way, a golden glamour falleth.
H
The censer sways
And glowing coals some art have To free what frankincense before held fast
Till all the summer of the eastern farms
Doth dim the sense, and dream up through the light, As memory, by new-born love corrected
With savour such as only new love knoweth Through swift dim ways the hidden pasts recalleth.
ra
On barren days,
At hours when I, apart, have
Bent low in thought of the great charm thou hast, Behold with music's many stringed charms
The silence groweth thou. O rare delight !
The melody upon clear strings inflected
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
THY
? Canzon:
OfIn-r . .
cense The glowing rays
IV
That from the low sun dart, have Turned gold each tower and every towering mast;
The saffron flame, that flaming nothing harms Hides Khadeeth's pearl and all the sapphire might Of burnished waves, before her gates collected: The cloak of graciousness, that round thee gloweth, Doth hide the thing thou art, as here befalleth.
v
All things worth praise
That unto Khadeeth's mart have
From far been brought through perils over-passed, All santal, myrrh, and spikenard that disarms The pard's swift anger; these would weigh but light 'Gainst thy delights, my Khadeeth! Whence
protected
By naught save her great grace that in him showeth, My song goes forth and on her mercy calleth.
VI
O censer of the thought that golden gloweth, Be bright before her when the evening falleth.
vn
Fragrant be thou as a new field one moweth, O song of mine that "Hers" her mercy calleth.
72
? CANZONE: OF ANGELS
HEthat is Lord of all the realms of light
Hath unto me from His
Granted such vision as hath wrought my joy.
Moving my spirit past the last defence
That shieldeth mortal things from mightier sight, Where freedom of the soul knows no alloy,
I saw what forms the lordly powers employ; Three splendours, saw I, of high holiness, From clarity to clarity ascending
Through all the roofless, tacit courts extending In aether which such subtle light doth bless
As ne'er the candles of the stars hath wooed; Know ye herefrom of their similitude.
II
Withdrawn within the cavern of his wings,
Grave with the joy of thoughts beneficent,
And finely wrought and durable and clear
If so his eyes showed forth the mind's content, So sate the first to whom remembrance clings, Tissued like bat's wings did his wings appear, Not of that shadowy colouring and drear,
But as thin shells, pale saffron, luminous;
Alone, unlonely, whose calm glances shed Friend's love to strangers though no word were
said,
Pensive his godly state he keepeth thus.
Not with his surfaces his power endeth,
But is as flame that from the gem extendeth.
73
magnificence
? Canzone: HI Of Angels
My second marvel stood not in such ease,
But he, the cloudy pinioned, winged him on Then from my sight as now from memory,
The courier aquiline, so swiftly gone !
For the fragrance on him laid; Even so love's might amazes !
Man's love follows many faces,
My love only one face knoweth;
Towards thee only my love floweth,
And outstrips the swift stream's paces. Were this love well here displayed,
As flame flameth 'neath thin jade
Love should glow through these my phrases.
HI
Though I Ve roamed through many places, None there is that my heart troweth
Fair as that wherein fair groweth
One whose land here interlaces
Tuneful words, that I Ve essayed. Let this tune be gently played Which my voice herward upraises.
IV
If my praise her grace effaces,
Then 't is not my heart that showeth, But the skilless tongue that soweth Words unworthy of her graces. Tongue, that hath me so betrayed, Were my heart but here displayed, Then were sung her fitting praises.
NOTE. The form and measure are those of Piere Vidal's " Ab ValentirvasmeVaire" Thesongisfitonlytobesung,and is not to be spoken.
70
? CANZON: OF INCENSE
[To this form sings Arnault Daniel, with seven stanzas instead of five. ]
gracious ways,
O Lady of my heart, have O'er all my thought their golden glamour cast;
As amber torch-flames, where strange men-at-arms Tread softly 'neath the damask shield of night,
Rise from the flowing steel in part reflected, So on my mailed thought that with thee goeth,
Though dark the way, a golden glamour falleth.
H
The censer sways
And glowing coals some art have To free what frankincense before held fast
Till all the summer of the eastern farms
Doth dim the sense, and dream up through the light, As memory, by new-born love corrected
With savour such as only new love knoweth Through swift dim ways the hidden pasts recalleth.
ra
On barren days,
At hours when I, apart, have
Bent low in thought of the great charm thou hast, Behold with music's many stringed charms
The silence groweth thou. O rare delight !
The melody upon clear strings inflected
Were dull when o'er taut sense thy presence floweth, With quivering notes' accord that never palleth.
THY
? Canzon:
OfIn-r . .
cense The glowing rays
IV
That from the low sun dart, have Turned gold each tower and every towering mast;
The saffron flame, that flaming nothing harms Hides Khadeeth's pearl and all the sapphire might Of burnished waves, before her gates collected: The cloak of graciousness, that round thee gloweth, Doth hide the thing thou art, as here befalleth.
v
All things worth praise
That unto Khadeeth's mart have
From far been brought through perils over-passed, All santal, myrrh, and spikenard that disarms The pard's swift anger; these would weigh but light 'Gainst thy delights, my Khadeeth! Whence
protected
By naught save her great grace that in him showeth, My song goes forth and on her mercy calleth.
VI
O censer of the thought that golden gloweth, Be bright before her when the evening falleth.
vn
Fragrant be thou as a new field one moweth, O song of mine that "Hers" her mercy calleth.
72
? CANZONE: OF ANGELS
HEthat is Lord of all the realms of light
Hath unto me from His
Granted such vision as hath wrought my joy.
Moving my spirit past the last defence
That shieldeth mortal things from mightier sight, Where freedom of the soul knows no alloy,
I saw what forms the lordly powers employ; Three splendours, saw I, of high holiness, From clarity to clarity ascending
Through all the roofless, tacit courts extending In aether which such subtle light doth bless
As ne'er the candles of the stars hath wooed; Know ye herefrom of their similitude.
II
Withdrawn within the cavern of his wings,
Grave with the joy of thoughts beneficent,
And finely wrought and durable and clear
If so his eyes showed forth the mind's content, So sate the first to whom remembrance clings, Tissued like bat's wings did his wings appear, Not of that shadowy colouring and drear,
But as thin shells, pale saffron, luminous;
Alone, unlonely, whose calm glances shed Friend's love to strangers though no word were
said,
Pensive his godly state he keepeth thus.
Not with his surfaces his power endeth,
But is as flame that from the gem extendeth.
73
magnificence
? Canzone: HI Of Angels
My second marvel stood not in such ease,
But he, the cloudy pinioned, winged him on Then from my sight as now from memory,
The courier aquiline, so swiftly gone !
