Hess 190 / 207 Varianti, versioni alternative ed escluse di canti popolari di diversi paesi

Hess 192 –  Dai 20 Canti popolari irlandesi, il n. 5. 

Hess 192 –  Dai 20 Canti popolari irlandesi, il n. 5.  Copia: 29 IV. (è da intendersi come una sostituzione – pertanto una seconda versione , non una seconda elaborazione – del canto popolare WoO 152 numero 5 “On the Massacre of Glencoe” composto nel febbraio del 1813. Cifr. C/C pagina 271. Per giustezza è scritto dal sesto rigo di pagina 126 recto a pagina 127 versus del manoscritto 29/IV. Testo: Walter Scott.

Oh! Tell me, Harper, wherefore flow
Thy wayward notes of wail and woe
Far down the desert of Glencoe,
Where non may list their melody?
Say, harp’st thou to the mist that fly,
Or to the dun deer glancing by,
Or to the eagle, that from hig
Screams chorus to thy minstrelsy?
————————————-
No, not to these, for they have rest,
The mist‐wreath has the mountain crest,
The stag his lair, the erne her nest,
Abode of lone security.
But those for whom I pour the lay,
Not wild wood deep, nor mountain grey,
Not this deep dell that shrouds from day
Could screen from treach’rous cruelty.
Their flag was furled, and mute their drum,
The very household dogs were dumb,
Unwont to bay at guests that come
In guise of hospitality.
His blithest notes the piper plied,
Her gayest snood the maiden tied,
The dame her distaff flung aside,
To tend her kindly housewifery.
————————————–
The hand that mingled in the meal,
At midnight drew the felon steel,
And gave the host’s kind breast to feel,
Meed for his hospitality.
The friendly heart which warm’d that hand,
At midnight arm’d it with a brand
That bade destruction’s flames expand
Their red and fearful blazonry.
Then woman’s shriek was heard in vain,
Nor infancy’s unpitied plain,
More than the warrior’s groan, could gain
Respite from ruthless butchery!
The winter wind that whistled shrill,
The snows that night that cloaked the hill,
Though wild and pitiless, had still
Far more than Southern clemency.
—————————————-
Long have my harp’s best notes been gone,
Few are its strings, and faint their tone,
They can but sound in desert lone
Their grey‐hair’d master’s misery.
Were each grey hair a minstrel string,
Each chord should imprecations fling,
’Till startled Scotland loud should ring,
“Revenge for blood and treachery!”

Per gentile concessione della  Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz)

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