leaves flying in the air and I do not see my love turn back from the
hill-top. I do not see him turn back.... that beautiful face has gone
over the hill." A youth tells all his story in these few words: "As I
passed over the mountain-crest thy beautiful name came into my mind; I
fell upon my knees and I joined my hands, and to have left thee seemed
a sin. I fell upon my knees on the hard stones; may our love come back
as of yore!" These are pure love-songs; not by any means descriptions
of scenery, and yet how much of the Tuscan landscape lives in them!
Almost the only folk-song which is avowedly descriptive of a mountain,
comes from South Greenland:--
The great Koonak Mount yonder south I do behold it. The great
Koonak Mount yonder south I regard it. The shining brightness
yonder south I contemplate. Outside of Koonak it is expanding;
the same that Koonak towards the sea-side doth encompass.
Behold how yonder south they tend to beautify each other;
while from the sea-side it is enveloped in sheets still
changing; from the sea-side it is enveloped to mutual
embellishment.
At the first reading all this may seem incoherent; at the second or
third we begin to see the scene gradually rising before us; the masses
of sea-born cloud sweeping on and up at dawn or sunset, till, finding
their passage barred, they enwrap the obstacle in folds of golden
vapour. It is singular that the Eskimo is incessantly gazing
southwards; can it be that he, too, is dimly sensible of what a great
writer has called "_la fatigue du Nord_"?
Incidental mention of the varying aspects of peak and upland is common
enough in popular songs. The Bavarian peasant notices the clearness of
the heights while mist hangs over the valley:--
Im Thal ist der Nebel
Auf der Alm is schon klar ...
The Basque observes the "misty summits;" the Greek sees the cloud
hurrying to the heights "like winged messengers." There is the closest
intimacy between the Greek and his mountains. When he has won a
victory for freedom, they cry aloud, "God is great!" When he is in
sorrow he pines for them as for the society of friends: "Why am I not
near the hills? Why have I not the mountains to keep me company?" A
sick Kleft cries to the birds, "Birds, shall I ever be cured? Birds,
shall I recover my strength?" To which the birds reply just as might
a fashionable physician who recommends his patient to try Pontresina:
"If thou wouldst be cured, if thou wouldst have thy wounds close up,
go thou to the heights of Olympus, to the beautiful uplands where the
strong man never suffers, where the suffering regain their strength."
This fine figure of speech also occurs in a Kleft song: "The plains
thirst for water, the mountains thirst for snow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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