Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/232

---

"Palaces, temples, olive-trees, we saw—
Swiftly, oh swiftly!—from oar gaze withdraw,
All saving Carmel's rugged crests, and those
But as a wave on the horizon rose.
When suddenly a sharp cry toward us drifted.
We turned, and saw a maid with arms uplifted.

"'Oh, take me with you!' cried she in distress;
'Oh, take me in the bark, my mistresses,
With you! I, too, must die for Jesus' sake!'
It was our handmaid Sarah thus who spake.
Up there in heaven, whither she is gone,
She shineth sweetly as an April dawn!

"Seaward before the wind our vessel drave.
Then God a thought unto Salome gave:
Her veil upon the foamy deep she threw,—
Oh, wondrous faith!—and on the water, blue
And white commingling wildly, it sustained
The maid until our fragile craft she gained,

"To her as well the strong breeze lending aid.
Now saw we in the hazy distance fade,
Hilltop by hilltop, our dear native land;
The sea encompassed as on every hand;
And a sharp home-sickness upon us fell,
The pangs whereof he who hath felt may tell.