Jessie Fauset, "The Sun of Brittany (Translated from the French)" (1927)
Translated from the French
By Jessie Fauset
I
“The sea compels me; sister I must go
Nay! Do not hold me,—I’m of age you know!
I am a Breton and of noble birth.
The pathway of the ocean draws me so!”
“But, brother, if you leave, what good am I on earth?
Without you, dear, my life is poor and cold.
Ah! stir not from our fold!
Remain with me until we both are old!
Our mountain life is happy, brother dear.
And then in Brittainy the sunlight is so clear!”
II
“Upon a vessel which shall bear your name
A captain I’ll return, but still the same.
Within three years we'll own these woods, this land;
And lords of all we'll be, and all will claim.”
“But think,” said she, “what more can you demand?
Our cottage rises from the earth’s brown mold,
And happy, happy is our humble fold.
Remain with me until we both are old!
Our mountain life is happy, brother dear,
And then in Brittainy the sunlight is so clear!”
Ill
But he must leave her though the heavens fall.
Ten lonely years—no word from him no call!
Beside the hearth his sister, his best friend,
Wept, constant, wearing sorrow as a pall.
Then suddenly her grief comes to an end.
One day a sailor, shipwrecked, racked with cold,
Sought shelter.
“You! My brother, grown so old!”
“Yes, sister mine, I’ve come back to the fold.
This mountain life will heal my suffering drear.
And sweetest Brittainy, thy sunlight is so clear!”
Published in The Crisis, November 1927