Abel was a keeper of sheep, Cain a tiller of the ground. That is, the first was a nomad and the second a sedentary. The quarrel of Cain and Abel has gone on from generation to generation, from the beginning of time down to our own day, as the atavistic opposition between nomads and sedentaries, or more exactly as the persistent persecution of the first by the second. And this hatred is far from extinct. It survives in the infamous and degrading regulations imposed on the gypsies, treated as if they were criminals, and flaunts itself on the outskirts of villages with the sign telling them to ‘move on.’
The Ogre, Michael Tournier

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Saturday, July 9, 2011

preciosa y el aire :: english

translated text  // texto traducido
copyright // derechos de autor :: b. a. lederle
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Translator's note:  Refer to Reponse
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 With parchment moon in hand
saunters Precious, playing,
along an amphibious path
of laurels and crystal shining.

                the starless silence,             5
escaping from the sonance,
falls where sea pounds and sings
its night a fish-filled darkness.
        
On the peaks of the mountains
                the cavalry slumber           10
while guarding white towers
where the English lumber.

and the river gypsies,
delighting themselves,
         construct bowers from green     15
pine boughs and conch shells.

With parchment moon in hand
saunters Precious, playing.
Upon seeing her the Wind
         that never tires starts preying.     20

Saint Christopher, naked
full of heavenly discourse,
watches her play
an absent, sweet chor’s.

         Child, so that I may see you,     25
lift up your guise.
Open your womb’s blue rose
in my fingers so wise

Precious throws her tambourine
            and runs without break       30
The man, as if wind, pursues
her with fiery stake.

The sea purses its murmur,
The olive trees turn sallow.
           The flutes sing of shade       35
and the still gong of the snow.

Precious! Run, Precious!
for the green wind is chasing you!
Precious! Run, Precious!
     Pay attention from where he comes  40
he, the Satyr of the low stars
with his radiant language.

Precious, full of fear,
far above the pines,
        go inside the building,     45
where the English House lies.

Frightened by her cries
three cavalry arise,
black capes clinging taut
caps fitted to temples

           the Englishman gives the gypsy girl       50
a glass of milk lukewarm
and a cup of gin liquor
that Precious doesn’t drink

Crying, she recounts
            her adventure to those people,      55
while in the works of slate
the wind, furious, gnashes

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satyr and bacchante :: james pradier

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