Versamelde gedigte

The Bakbakiri

Below in the brake where the bracken

Bends low to speak to the grass,

And the quivering rushes slacken

As the noonday breezes pass,

On a stone that is splashed by the water

The Bush Shrike sits to prove

To the Bakbakiri's daughter

His innate, passionate love.

A fluttering flight, fantastic;

A minuet madly trod;

Breast plumage blown out bombastic;

Head vibrant with vigorous nod;

Side stepping with corybantic
Abandon to prove his skill,
And whirling his green wings, frantic

With passionate, potent will.

Her sense of his raptures waken

A sympathy strong and sure.

With delight by desire o'ertaken

She bends to his beckoning lure.

And hurls from her slim stemmed heather

Her body of breaking green,

Wings pulsing accord; each feather

Shown full in its dazzling sheen.

In paired perfection, living

Each pause and each passionate stride,

Now taking a turn, now giving

That look which is love's own pride,

They flaunt themselves in the water

Till the fern fronds drip with spray,

And the Bakbakiri's daughter

Prepares for her wedding day.

Jagger-biblioteek, Universiteit van Kaapstad

[p. 495]

 

O praise the Spring that has given us a glimpse of its glory

 

Vanished is winter's oppression, hail-laden and hoary;

 

Vanished the gloom that has gulfed us in mourning and sadness.

 

Hail the effulgence of summer's earth-brightening gladness,

 

Broadening, burgeoning, pregnant with fragrance and bloom,

 

Swiftly it bursts in meridional beauty and blends

 

Contrasts in harmonies, shadows in lights that illume

 

Discords in sound whose perfection all sweetness transcends.

 

Hail it, o mountains that mock at man's measure of days;

 

Hail it, ye glebelands engarbed in a welter of green;

 

Hail it, ye forests primeval that shelter the ways,

 

Hail it, o sea with your wonder of waters serene!

 

Hail, and rejoice

 

With the power that is in you, the joy that inspires

 

The soul that desires

 

The blessing of life as its ultimate choice!

Jagger-biblioteek, Universiteit van Kaapstad