Dorigen 1

Dorigen

This is a story from long ago,

It goes right back, back to the days

When there was time to grow a rose

And time to look at the moon

And know her phases.

Years before the factory, years before the train

And years before the car took hold,

When the gallop of the horse

Was as fast as man could go,

For then the horse was king.

Way back before the cold computer age,

To those days when the world was free

From the treadmill of e-mails,

And the inquisitive tentacles of Facebook.

And here it is.

Years ago in Brittany they made up poems,

All rhymed and in Breton.

When friends were gathered like us now,

By the winter fire with snow outside,

Or in the summer shade of a great oak’s leaves,

They sang these poems

Or read them out aloud.

For poems are music and a rush of sounds,

And were never made

To be read in silence.

I can remember one of them

And will tell it to you now.

So if you have time for a poem,

And so few have today,

Just make yourself comfortable,

And pour yourself a drink.

There’s beer in the fridge,

No, on the bottom shelf.

It’s always on the bottom shelf.

That’s it.

There’s a glass in the cupboard.

You’re happy with the can?  OK then.

One thing more, before I start.

I’m very down to earth, you know.

Forgive the plain style that I use.

I call a spade a spade,

And bread is bread and wine is wine!

I know nothing of poetic terms

Or words refined.

So here we go then.

Listen.

In those times so long ago

Armorica was the name

Of what is Brittany today.

In Armorica there was a knight

And his name was Roderick.

He served his lady well and long.

Many great adventures he carried out

And many dangers he endured for her.

And she was worth it for she was

The fairest lady and the best

In all the land from east to west.   

And in the end, for after this world’s ways

No woman says yes in the early days,

Or if she does, she will regret such quick consent,

She finally with full accord,

Seeing his worth and all that he had done,

Took him for her husband and her lord.

A bargain they made there and then.

He promised her that day or night

He never would insist

On anything against her will. 

And she replied,

‘Since you give me so free a rein

I promise you that all my life

I’ll be your true and humble wife’.

If there’s one thing that I’m sure of,

It’s that friends must give and take

If their friendship’s going to last.

Love cannot brook control.

If one commands, the god of love anon,

Flaps his wide wings, and farewell, he is gone!

Women by their nature must be free,

And don’t want to be bossed around,

And nor do men, I’ve always found.

So the accord they came to was the best

To live in peace and free from strife.

She has her lover and her husband,

And he his lover and his wife.

If anyone was happy on this earth

Of ups and downs, of sun and rain,

Where fortune’s wheel lifts us up high

And at the top will cast us down again,

Then it was Roderick of Brittany.

He had, it seems, all that a man could want.

All men said that his true wife

Was the fairest lady in all the land,

From the mouth of the Seine and far beyond

Down to the south and the Gironde.

And all the women disagreed,

Though in their heart of hearts they knew she was,

And said that she was good enough and thus

No reason was there to make such a fuss.

What was she like then?

Well, she had a look that could

Make the young men sigh

And make the old men sigh too

And regret their years,

And forget their aches and pains,

And even some short dream could waken,

And loves long gone they could remember,

And past chances too, some missed, some taken.

Her laugh could lighten the gloomy sight

Of the darkest morning in November,

And her smile could take the summer night

And spin it out till day’s first light.

Then, restless in his knighthood,

Roderick went to England for a time

To search for further challenge there

In arms, adventures and good deeds.

His wife was left at home in Penmarch bay,

On the rocky coast of Brittany,

And her name was Dorigen.