[2] The first stanza in the original will show the structure of this true "ballad" in the primitive sense of a dance-song. There are five of these stanzas, carrying the same rhymes throughout:-- A l'entrada del temps clar,--eya,-- Per joja recomencar,--eya,-- E per jelos irritar,--eya,-- Vol la regina mostrar Qu' el' est si amoroza. REFRAIN Alavi', alavia, jelos, laissaz nos, laissaz nos ballar entre nos, entre nos! [3] Games and songs of children are still to be found which preserve many of the features of these old dance-songs. The dramatic traits met with in the games point back now to the choral poetry of pagan times, when perhaps a bit of myth was enacted, now to the communal dance where the stealing of a bride may have been imitated. [4] Unless otherwise credited, translations are by the writer. That is, "if spring were here, and the girls were going to the village dance"; for ball-playing was not only a rival of the dance, but was often combined with it. Walther's dactyls are one in spirit with the fragments of communal lyric which have been preserved for us by song-loving "clerks" or theological students, those intellectual tramps of the Middle Ages, who often wrote down such a merry song of May and then turned it more or less freely into their barbarous but not unattractive Latin. For example:-- Now is time for holiday! Let our singing greet the May: Flowers in the breezes play, Every holt and heath is gay. Let us dance and let us spring With merry song and crying! Joy befits the lusty May: Set the ball a-flying! If I woo my lady-love, Will she be denying?[5] [5] From 'Carmina Burana,' a collection of these songs in Latin and German preserved in a MS. of the thirteenth century; edited by J. A. Schmeller, Breslau, 1883. This song is page 181 ff., in German, 'Nu Suln Wir Alle Froeude Han.' The steps of the dance are not remote; and the same echo haunts another song of the sort:-- Dance we now the measure, Dance, lady mine! May, the month of pleasure, Comes with sweet sunshine. Winter vexed the meadow Many weary hours: Fled his chill and shadow,-- Lo, the fields are laughing Red with flowers.[6] [6] Ibid., page 178: 'Springe wir den Reigen.' Or the song at the dance may set forth some of the preliminaries, as when a girl is supposed to sing:-- Care and sorrow, fly away! On the green field let us play, Playmates gentle, playmates mine, Where we see the bright flowers shine, I say to thee, I say to thee, Playmate mine, O come with me! Gracious Love, to me incline, Make for me a garland fine,-- Garland for the man to wear Who can please a maiden fair. I say to thee, I say to thee, Playmate mine, O come with me![7] [7] Ibid., page 213: 'Ich wil Truren Varen lan.'