Sweden's Laureate: Selected Poems of Verner von Heidenstam/The Pilgrim's Yule Song
THE PILGRIM'S YULE SONG.
(From "Hans Alienus.")
Autumn rains and the desert sun
Bleached my pilgrim's attire.
Just at cock-crow my day was begun
Ere yet the dawn spread higher.
Slowly, drearily
I'd be trudging
Swedenward, and not until eve
Would I wearily
Seek for lodging—
Straw by the hearth is what they'd leave.
Bleached my pilgrim's attire.
Just at cock-crow my day was begun
Ere yet the dawn spread higher.
Slowly, drearily
I'd be trudging
Swedenward, and not until eve
Would I wearily
Seek for lodging—
Straw by the hearth is what they'd leave.
Tales of crusades and a credulous mood
Guided the thoughts that stirred me.
Drawn by my stories, the peasants stood
Hushed at the door and heard me.
Women, listening,
Crowded tightly
Each to each in a spell-bound row.
Sparks were glistening,
Spouted lightly
Up from the licking flames below.
Guided the thoughts that stirred me.
Drawn by my stories, the peasants stood
Hushed at the door and heard me.
Women, listening,
Crowded tightly
Each to each in a spell-bound row.
Sparks were glistening,
Spouted lightly
Up from the licking flames below.
Pilgrim adventures along the road,
Such would I tell unbidden.
Never the blighting flame I showed
Deep in my spirit hidden.
'Tis not the dutiful
Holy brother
Goes concealed in the cloak I wear.
'Tis not the beautiful
Bright God's-mother
Who is the queen of my utmost prayer.
Such would I tell unbidden.
Never the blighting flame I showed
Deep in my spirit hidden.
'Tis not the dutiful
Holy brother
Goes concealed in the cloak I wear.
'Tis not the beautiful
Bright God's-mother
Who is the queen of my utmost prayer.
I have strayed about in the dread
Region of Phantoms lonely,
Long amid bones have talked with the dead,
Wraiths of the desert only,
Till by nearing them
Soon I proved them.
Sobs and laughter we came to share;
And from fearing them
Last I loved them,
Sought a home with the phantoms there.
Region of Phantoms lonely,
Long amid bones have talked with the dead,
Wraiths of the desert only,
Till by nearing them
Soon I proved them.
Sobs and laughter we came to share;
And from fearing them
Last I loved them,
Sought a home with the phantoms there.
Phantoms possessed me—in lovely sheen
Rose now a world long buried.
Nineveh maidens with wreaths of green
Decked the staff that I carried.
Stars had a shimmering
Bible clearness,
Faint-sighing music around me stole,
Till with a glimmering
Magic nearness
Old-time beauty entranced my soul.
Rose now a world long buried.
Nineveh maidens with wreaths of green
Decked the staff that I carried.
Stars had a shimmering
Bible clearness,
Faint-sighing music around me stole,
Till with a glimmering
Magic nearness
Old-time beauty entranced my soul.
Sewn on my cope, the mussel-shell
Roars with Ionian surges.
Echo of cymbal and drum as well
Into the tumult merges.
Centaurs with ponderous
Hoof-beats ringing
Carry off maidens and snort in pride.
Terrible, thunderous
Laughter and singing
Mark the time of their galloping stride.
Roars with Ionian surges.
Echo of cymbal and drum as well
Into the tumult merges.
Centaurs with ponderous
Hoof-beats ringing
Carry off maidens and snort in pride.
Terrible, thunderous
Laughter and singing
Mark the time of their galloping stride.
Faithless, I fled the land of shades,
Longingly turned again to
Crowded and glittering promenades—
Nay, but that was in vain, too.
Life-wards wooing me,
Towns and lands would
Raise around me their loud delight;
But, pursuing me,
Spectral hands would
Steal across and obscure my sight.
Longingly turned again to
Crowded and glittering promenades—
Nay, but that was in vain, too.
Life-wards wooing me,
Towns and lands would
Raise around me their loud delight;
But, pursuing me,
Spectral hands would
Steal across and obscure my sight.
Freely the young around me greet
Ages that newly awaken.
I, like a wraith amid all I meet,
Move on the road I have taken.
Moderns, gallantly
Bending bows of
Sinew and steel, shoots words apace;
I go silently,
No man knows of
Him who strays from the phantom's place.
Ages that newly awaken.
I, like a wraith amid all I meet,
Move on the road I have taken.
Moderns, gallantly
Bending bows of
Sinew and steel, shoots words apace;
I go silently,
No man knows of
Him who strays from the phantom's place.
Never can I with my old delight
Speak of the hour that passes;
Thoughts will be groping day and night
Down in the deep crevasses,
Where no flickering
Torch gives other
Light than a subterranean glare.
Gaily bickering
Friend and brother
Never with me the board will share.
Speak of the hour that passes;
Thoughts will be groping day and night
Down in the deep crevasses,
Where no flickering
Torch gives other
Light than a subterranean glare.
Gaily bickering
Friend and brother
Never with me the board will share.
Screaming cranes have already flown.
Snow-flakes are deftly laying
Bolster and pillow on ledge and stone.
Windows, the huts betraying,
Shine forth clouded. A
Sparrow is winging
Toward the barn with its sheaves of wheat.
Evening-shrouded, a
Boy is singing
Yule-tide songs from his waggon-seat.
Snow-flakes are deftly laying
Bolster and pillow on ledge and stone.
Windows, the huts betraying,
Shine forth clouded. A
Sparrow is winging
Toward the barn with its sheaves of wheat.
Evening-shrouded, a
Boy is singing
Yule-tide songs from his waggon-seat.
Voices of childhood years, toward you
Now through the snow I stumble;
But to my heart you have lost the clue
And in my ears but mumble.
Oh, ye cumberless,
Mild, Elysian
Voices, in vain would you soothe my soul.
Threatful, with numberless
Repetition,
Scenes of Hades before me roll.
Now through the snow I stumble;
But to my heart you have lost the clue
And in my ears but mumble.
Oh, ye cumberless,
Mild, Elysian
Voices, in vain would you soothe my soul.
Threatful, with numberless
Repetition,
Scenes of Hades before me roll.
Lethe's tide makes the soul forget;
I, blind and headlong-hearted,
Drank of dark Styx—and my gaze was set
Only on times departed.
Pale ghosts, grieving me,
Lure me ever
Only to dream by Charon's flood.
Gay Life, deceiving me,
Grants me never
Fruits that, beckoning, thrill my blood.
I, blind and headlong-hearted,
Drank of dark Styx—and my gaze was set
Only on times departed.
Pale ghosts, grieving me,
Lure me ever
Only to dream by Charon's flood.
Gay Life, deceiving me,
Grants me never
Fruits that, beckoning, thrill my blood.
Fettered to life, I roam the earth.
Driven without cessation,
Seeking, but finding only dearth,
Stranger in every nation.
Hades recaptured me.
Life has punished
All of the wraith-kind who came her way.
Beauty enraptured me,
Realms long vanished
Won my soul to be theirs for aye.
Driven without cessation,
Seeking, but finding only dearth,
Stranger in every nation.
Hades recaptured me.
Life has punished
All of the wraith-kind who came her way.
Beauty enraptured me,
Realms long vanished
Won my soul to be theirs for aye.