Poetry

I
O listen all attentively
I'll sing you a new melody!
A song about little Renée
Whom her parents married away

This year Renée the Pale was wed
But loved another one, instead.
Everything started when Renée
Has asked her mother one day:

- Pray, what is in our house afoot,
Hearth fire and three caldrons to boot?
One of them red-hot already,
The big and the small, presently?

- I am surprised by your question:
It's to celebrate your union!
- If tomorrow I'm to marry
I'll go to bed immediately.

I'll go immediately to bed
And I'll rise at daybreak, she said.
I'll rise at daybreak tomorrow:
My wedding dress I must narrow. -

Renée the Pale then has addressed
Her little maid with a request:
- My friend, concerning my lover,
Would you do me a small favour?

To my clerk's with this letter go!
His eyes with tears must overflow.
- O my young mistress, this moment
For you I shall go on errand. -

At Kervalbrey's the little maid-
Servant arrived soon and she said:
- My greeting to all everyone!
Tell me where is your eldest son?

- He is in bed, sick and aching
Since he heard of Renée's wedding.
His bed is in the library.
Go, you won't miss him, certainly! -

- Young Clerk, I wish you good morning!
- Good morning, maid who's so charming!
- Here is a note for you to read:
You should peruse it. Go ahead!

- This letter, if it tells the truth,
My anxious mind never will soothe
She has but three days to live! Still
I'll die before. I am so ill! -

II
Renée the Pale said, one morning
At her bedroom's window leaning:
- Over there I see a party
That will cross Diez Wood presently.

Yves Sellar rides ahead of all:
A special curse on him I call!
And on my father and mother,
And all such as raised a daughter

And all such as a daughter raised
Just to decide all in her stead. -
To the church when they all did stroll
They heared the bell for the clerk toll...

Three times the poor girl swooned and fell.
Yves helped her up. Ominous bell!
Renée the Pale told the parson
Who celebrated the union:

- Quick, hurry up! Or I shall pass
Away before you said the mass. -

III
Renée said on entering the house
Where lived the mother of her spouse:

- To your daughter-in-law don't frown,
But show her a bench to sit down!
- I am surprised you should be tired.
Had you not a fine horse to ride?.

- I would have come on foot, for sure,
If this had been a pleasant tour.
If I am your daughter-in-law,
Show me my bed. I will withdraw.

- Over there: in the library.
- My son Yves keep her company!
And in God's name, cheer her up, please!
She did not eat. Make her at ease!

- My beloved one, good day to you.
- Young widower, I greet you, too.
I do not mistake you for such
But soon the word won't be too much! -

She arranged for herself a chair,
And for him, with the greatest care.
- My poor husband, if you love me,
Let me go to the wake, briefly.

To the wake, briefly, let me go.
- To the funeral wake? Oh no!
Since tonight is your wedding night.
But to the interment you might.

- My friend, I'd like, with your consent,
To make my will and testament:
In the pouch of my wedding gown
There's a sum of five hundred crowns:

This will be for you, my husband,
For the expense you had to stand.
The same with the apron I did:
Another fifty crowns are hid.

Please, give them to the little maid:
I bothered her to get her aid
And aimless letters to convey
From Manor Glas to Kervalbrey.

Further, within my cotillion
Are sixty crowns in addition:
Part of it should be for the poor.
But for the priests you'll keep a score,

That they may once for us both pray
Whom in the cold glebe they will lay. -
Upon her lap his head she bent.
Now her life had come to an end.

O God, grant pardon to the dead!
Upon the trestles they were laid.
Their souls to heaven they took flight
They wed before God the same night.

They did not sleep in the same bed,
In the same grave they lie instead
By one another they took stand
To be united by God's hand

Translated from the Breton