| |
| AT Rochecoart, | |
Where the hills part
in three ways, | |
| And three valleys, full of winding roads, | |
| Fork out to south and north, | |
| There is a place of trees … gray with lichen. | 5 |
I have walked there
thinking of old days. | |
At Chalais
is a pleached arbor; | |
| Old pensioners and old protected women | |
Have the right there—
it is charity. | |
I have crept over old rafters,
peering down | 10 |
Over the Dronne,
over a stream full of lilies. | |
Eastward the road lies,
Aubeterre is eastward, | |
| With a garrulous old man at the inn. | |
| I know the roads in that place: | |
Mareuil to the north-east,
La Tour, | 15 |
| There are three keeps near Mareuil, | |
And an old woman,
glad to hear Arnaut, | |
| Glad to lend one dry clothing. | |
| |
I have walked
into Perigord, | |
| I have seen the torch-flames, high-leaping, | 20 |
| Painting the front of that church, | |
| And, under the dark, whirling laughter. | |
I have looked back over the stream
and seen the high building, | |
| Seen the long minarets, the white shafts. | |
I have gone in Ribeyrac
and in Sarlat, | 25 |
| I have climbed rickety stairs, heard talk of Croy, | |
| Walked over En Bertran’s old layout, | |
| Have seen Narbonne, and Cahors and Chalus, | |
| Have seen Excideuil, carefully fashioned. | |
I have said:
“Here such a one walked. | 30 |
“Here Coeur-de-Lion was slain.
“Here was good singing. | |
“Here one man hastened his step.
“Here one lay panting.” | |
I have looked south from Hautefort,
thinking of Montaignac, southward. | |
I have lain in Rocafixada,
level with sunset, | |
Have seen the copper come down
tinging the mountains, | 35 |
| I have seen the fields, pale, clear as an emerald, | |
| Sharp peaks, high spurs, distant castles. | |
| I have said: “The old roads have lain here. | |
| “Men have gone by such and such valleys, | |
| “Where the great halls are closer together.” | 40 |
| I have seen Foix on its rocks, seen Toulouse and Arles greatly altered, | |
I have seen the ruined “Dorata.”
I have said: | |
“Riquier! Guido.”
I have thought of the second Troy, | |
| Some little prized place in Auvergnat: | |
| Two men tossing a coin, one keeping a castle, | 45 |
One set on the highway to sing.
He sang a woman. | |
Auvergne rose to the song;
The Dauphin backed him. | |
“The castle to Austors!”
“Pieire kept the singing— | |
“A fair man and a pleasant.”
He won the lady, | |
| Stole her away for himself, kept her against armed force: | 50 |
| So ends that story. | |
| That age is gone; | |
| Pieire de Maensac is gone. | |
| I have walked over these roads; | |
| I have thought of them living. | 55 |
| |
