And fond farewells I said,when at the close of day,Silent she led my spirit back whence it was borne away!"He then speaks of the happiness of his wedded life;he shaves and sings most joyfully.A little rivulet of silver passes into the barber's shop,and,in a fit of poetic ardour,he breaks into pieces and burns the wretched arm-chair in which his ancestors were borne to the hospital to die.His wife no longer troubles him with her doubts as to his verses interfering with his business.She supplies him with pen,paper,ink,and a comfortable desk;and,in course of time,he buys the house in which he lives,and becomes a man of importance in Agen.
He ends the third canto with a sort of hurrah--"Thus,reader,have I told my tale in cantos three:
Though still I sing,I hazard no great risk;
For should Pegasus rear and fling me,it is clear,However ruffled all my fancies fair,I waste my time,'tis true;though verses I may lose,The paper still will serve for curling hair."[4]
Robert Nicoll,the Scotch poet,said of his works:
"I have written my heart in my poems;and rude,unfinished,and hasty as they are,it can be read there."Jasmin might have used the same words."With all my faults,"he said,"I desired to write the truth,and I have described it as I saw it."In his 'Recollections'he showed without reserve his whole heart.
Jasmin dedicated his 'Recollections,'when finished,to M.Florimond de Saint-Amand,one of the first gentlemen who recognised his poetical talents.This was unquestionably the first poem in which Jasmin exhibited the true bent of his genius.He avoided entirely the French models which he had before endeavoured to imitate;and he now gave full flight to the artless gaiety and humour of his Gascon muse.It is unfortunate that the poem cannot be translated into English.
It was translated into French;but even in that kindred language it lost much of its beauty and pathos.The more exquisite the poetry that is contained in one language,the more difficulty there is in translating it into another.
M.Charles Nodier said of Lou Tres de May that it contains poetic thoughts conveyed in exquisite words;but it is impossible to render it into any language but its own.In the case of the Charivari he shrinks from attempting to translate it.
There is one passage containing a superb deion of the rising of the sun in winter;but two of the lines quite puzzled him.In Gascon they are "Quand l'Auroro,fourrado en raoubo de sati,Desparrouillo,san brut,las portos del mati.'
Some of the words translated into French might seem vulgar,though in Gascon they are beautiful.In English they might be rendered:
"When Aurora,enfurred in her robe of satin,Unbars,without noise,the doors of the morning.""Dream if you like,"says Nodier,"of the Aurora of winter,and tell me if Homer could have better robed it in words.The Aurora of Jasmin is quite his own;'unbars the doors of the morning';it is done without noise,like a goddess,patient and silent,who announces herself to mortals only by her brightness of light.It is this finished felicity of expression which distinguishes great writers.The vulgar cannot accomplish it."Again Nodier says of the 'Recollections':"They are an ingenuous marvel of gaiety,sensibility,and passion!I use,"he says,"this expression of enthusiasm;and I regret that I cannot be more lavish in my praises.There is almost nothing in modem literature,and scarcely anything in ancient,which has moved me more profoundly than the Souvenirs of Jasmin.
Happy and lovely children of Guienne and Languedoc,read and re-read the Souvenirs of Jasmin;they will give you painful recollections of public schools,and perhaps give you hope of better things to come.You will learn by heart what you will never forget.You will know from this poetry all that you ought to treasure."Jasmin added several other poems to his collection before his second volume appeared in 1835.Amongst these were his lines on the Polish nation--Aux debris de la Nation Polonaise,and Les Oiseaux Voyageurs,ou Les Polonais en France--both written in Gascon.Saint-beuve thinks the latter one of Jasmin's best works."It is full of pathos,"he says,"and rises to the sublime through its very simplicity.It is indeed difficult to exaggerate the poetic instinct and the unaffected artlessness of this amiable bard.At the same time,"he said,"Jasmin still wanted the fire of passion to reach the noblest poetic work.
Yet he had the art of style.If Agen was renowned as 'the eye of Guienne,'Jasmin was certainly the greatest poet who had ever written in the pure patois of Agen."Sainte-Beuve also said of Jasmin that he was "invariably sober."And Jasmin said of himself,"I have learned that in moments of heat and emotion we are all eloquent and laconic,alike in speech and action--unconscious poets in fact;and I have also learned that it is possible for a muse to become all this willingly,and by dint of patient toil."Another of his supplementary poems consisted of a dialogue between Ramoun,a soldier of the Old Guard,and Mathiou,a peasant.It is of a political cast,and Jasmin did not shine in politics.He was,however,always a patriot,whether under the Empire,the Monarchy,or the Republic.He loved France above all things,while he entertained the warmest affection for his native province.If Jasmin had published his volume in classical French he might have been lost amidst a crowd of rhymers;but as he published the work in his native dialect,he became forthwith distinguished in his neighbourhood,and was ever after known as the Gascon poet.