A PRAYER FOR GOING TO PARADISE WITH DONKEYS
By Francis Jammes
Rendered
into English from the original French by
MARCELLA HARDY
WHEN
my time comes to go to You, O my Lord, grant
it
may be on a day when the joyous countryside
shimmers.
I wish, as I did here below, to choose
a
way a path along which to go, just as I like,
to
Paradise, where the stars shine in broad daylight.
I
will take my staff and along the highway will I go,
and
I will say to the donkeys, my friends:
‘I
am Francis Jammes and I am going to Paradise,
for
there is no hell in the Good Lord’s country.’
I
will say to them: ‘Come, sweet friends or the blue sky,
poor
loved creatures that, with a quick toss of your ears,
shake
off persistent flies, blows, and bees....’
May
I appear before you surrounded by these creatures
that
I love so well because they bow their heads
meekly
and, when they step, join their little feet
in
a manner so gentle that it wrings the heart.
I
will come followed by their thousands of ears,
followed
by those that have carried baskets on their sides,
by
those that dragged mummers’ carts
or
the carts of broom-vendors and tinkers,
by
those that have dented bins on their backs,
by
asses with broken gait and as swollen as water-skins,
by
those on whom they fit little pants
because
of the livid, oozing wounds
made
by stubborn flies sitting around them.
Grant,
Lord, that with those donkeys I come before You.
Grant
that, in Your peace, angels lead us
towards
grass-grown rills where cherries dance,
smooth-skinned
as the radiant flesh of maidens,
and
grant that, in this abode of the soul,
leaning
over Your divine waters, I be like unto
the
donkeys that see their meek and humble poverty
reflected
in the limpid light of eternal love.