One of my favourite Jammes poems

 

 

 

All the leaves are turning and it’s autumn already and it makes me think of Jammes. I so love this poem.

 

 

I want no other joy

 

I want no other joy when the summer

returns, than that of the year gone by.

Under dozing muscats I shall sit.

Deep in the woods, where fresh waters sing,

I will hear and feel and see everything

the forest fears, feels and sees.

 

I want no other joy when the autumn

returns, than that of the yellow leaves

raking the hills when it thunders,

than the dull sound of new wine barrels,

than heavy skies and cowbells ringing,

and beggars asking for alms.

 

I want no other joy when the winter

returns, than that of the iron sky,

than the smoke of the grinding cranes,

than embers singing like the sea,

than the lamp behind green panes

in the shop where the bread is bitter.

 

I want no other joy when the spring

returns, than that of the biting winds,

than peach trees, leafless, blooming,

than muddy paths turning green,

than the violet, than the bird singing

like a stream that gorges the storm.

 

 

 

~ from Under the Azure: Poems of Francis Jammes (2010), translated by Janine Canane and published by Littlefox Press, Victoria.