Page:Modern poets and poetry of Spain.djvu/127

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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.


  1. 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.