‘Pirinenques’ (I) – by Joan Maragall

Info: This poem is the first in a sequence of poems about the Pyrenees (the mountain range running along the border of France and Spain) collectively called ‘Pirinenques’, roughly meaning ‘Poems of the Pyrenees’.

 

‘Pirinenques‘

High in the Pyrenees
the flowers are drained with pallor,
the flowers are of weakened blue,
and tinged with bruised colour:
sad ones of the high mounts
are they, the shrouded crests,
and sad so too the herds
across the meadows spread,
so too is the upright shepherd
a figure of loneliness.
And the enfeebled sun
brings forth no heat, is colourless;
the forest wretched and woody,
and the grass short and ashen;
rocky and dismal grey
the peaks of those mountains,
all enveloped in snow
of eternal white patches,
and billowing around
the mist runs and passes.
At dusk, from within the valleys
the mist begins to rise,
and with its blanketing cover
goes solemnly up the mountain side.

Joan Maragall (1860-1911)

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 Original Catalan Text

 

Pirinenques

A dalt del Pirineu
les flors són esblaimades,
les flors són d’un blau clar,
blavoses o morades:
són tristes dels alts monts
les crestes emboirades,
i tristos els ramats
estesos per les prades,
i la del dret pastor
figura solitària.
El sol esblanqueït
no treu color ni escalfa;
el bosc mesquí i llenyós,
i l’herba curta i clara:
pedrosos i grisencs
els cims de les muntanyes,
tots ditejats de neu
d’eternes clapes blanques,
i fumejant arreu
la boira corre i passa.
Al tard, de dins les valls
la boira va aixecant-se,
i amb ella emmantellant
se va solemnement l’alta muntanya.

(Text sourced from http://www.xtec.cat/~evicioso/index.htm)