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Anonymous translation
THEY were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
| One morning, as I went to glean the grain, | |
| I saw a bark in middle of the main; | |
| It was a bark came steaming to the shore, | 5 |
| And hoisted for its flag the tricolor. | |
| At Ponza’s isle it stopped beneath the lea; | |
| It stayed awhile, and then put out to sea,— | |
| Put out to sea, and came unto our strand; | |
| Landed with arms, but not as foemen land. | 10 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
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| Landed with arms, but not as foemen land, | |
| For they stooped down and kissed the very sand. | |
| And one by one I looked them in the face; | 15 |
| A tear and smile in each one I could trace! | |
| “Thieves from their dens are these,” some people said, | |
| And yet they took not even a loaf of bread! | |
| I heard them utter but a single cry: | |
| “We for our native land have come to die!” | 20 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
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| With eyes of azure, and with hair of gold, | |
| A young man marched in front of them; and bold | |
| I made myself, and, having seized his hand, | 25 |
| Asked him, “Where goest, fair captain of the band?” | |
| He looked at me and answered, “Sister mine, | |
| I go to die for this fair land of thine!” | |
| I felt my heart was trembling through and through, | |
| Nor could I say to him, “God comfort you!” | 30 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
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| That morning I forgot to glean the grain, | |
| And set myself to follow in their train. | |
| Twice over they encountered the gens-d’armes, | 35 |
| Twice over they despoiled them of their arms; | |
| But when we came before Certosa’s wall | |
| We heard the drums beat and the trumpets call, | |
| And mid the smoke, the firing, and the glare | |
| More than a thousand fell upon them there. | 40 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
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| They were three hundred, and they would not fly; | |
| They seemed three thousand, and they wished to die, | |
| But wished to die with weapons in their hands; | 45 |
| Before them ran with blood the meadow-lands. | |
| I prayed for them, but ere the fight was o’er | |
| Swooned suddenly away, and looked no more; | |
| For in their midst I could no more behold | |
| Those eyes of azure and that hair of gold! | 50 |
| They were three hundred, they were young and strong, | |
| And they are dead! | |
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