My Sun, where art thou going? Stay to see
How passing beautiful is she I love.
My Sun, that round and round the world dost move,
Hast thou seen any beautiful as she?
My Sun, that hast the whole world travelled round,
One beautiful as she thou hast not found!
Next to his lady's laughter, the South Italian Greek worships the sun.
It is the only feature in nature to which he pays much heed. In common
with other forms of modern Greek the Calabrian possesses the beautiful
periphrase for sunset, _o iglio vasileggui_ ([Greek: ho helios
basileuei]). Language, which is altogether a kind of poetry, has not
anything more profoundly poetic. There is a brisk, lively ring in the
"Sun up!" of the American Far West; but an intellectual Atlantic flows
between it and the Greek ascription of kingship, of heroship, to the
Day-giver at the end of his course--
Wie herrlich die Sonne dort untergeht,
So stirbt ein Held! Anbetungswuerdig!
When we were young, were not our hearts stirred to their inmost depths
by this?
The love-songs of Bova include one composed by a young man who had the
ill-luck to get into prison. "Remember," he says, "the words I spoke
to thee when we were seated on the grass; for the love of Christ,
remember them, so as not to make my life a torment. Think not that I
shall stay in here for ever; already I have completed one day. But if
it should happen that thou art forgetful of my words, beyond a doubt
this prison awaits me!" The singer seems to wish it to be inferred
that his line of conduct in the given case will be such as to entitle
him to board and lodging at the expense of the state for the rest of
his days. In times still recent, prisoners at Bova could see and be
seen, and hear and be heard, through the bars. Thus the incarcerated
lover had not to wait long for an answer, which must have greatly
relieved his mind: "The words that thou didst say to me on the tender
grass, I remember them--I forget them not. I would not have thee
say them over again; but be sure I love thee. Night and day I go to
church, and of Christ I ask this grace: 'My Christ, make short the
hours--bring to me him whom I love!'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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