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JUAN MELENDEZ VALDES.
81
MY VILLAGE LIFE.[1]
When able happily am I
To my poor village to escape,
From all the city's noise to fly,
And cares of every shape;
Like a new man my spirits give
Me then to feel, in joyous link;
For only then I seem to live,
And only then to think.
The insufferable hours that there
In weariness to me return'd,
Now on a course so gently bear,
Their flight is scarce discern'd.
The nights that there in sloth and play
Alone their occupations keep,
Here with choice books I pass away,
And in untroubled sleep.
With the first dawn I wake, to change
Rejoiced the soft bed's balmy rest,
Through the life-giving air to range,
That free dilates the breast.
- ↑ This and the two following poems are taken from those at pages 94, 110 and 64 of the first volume of the Works of Melendez Valdes; the Disdainful Shepherdess from the one at p. 62 of vol. ii.
