by Coleridge · Cluster: Unrequited Frustrated Love · Unattainable Beloved · Petrarchan Sonnet
Abstract
A song translated from the French in which a river-crossing becomes a courtship; the boat becomes the lovers’ home, blending the journey-over-water with love and marriage.
Connections
Motifs: River, Journey, Water Themes & Concepts: Romantic Love, Marriage and Fidelity Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song, Translation
Testo integrale / Full text
FROM THE FRENCH
‘Come hither, gently rowing,
Come, bear me quickly o’er
This stream so brightly flowing
To yonder woodland shore.
But vain were my endeavour 5
To pay thee, courteous guide;
Row on, row on, for ever
I’d have thee by my side.
‘Good boatman, prithee haste thee,
I seek my father-land.’ — 10
‘Say, when I there have placed thee,
Dare I demand thy hand?’
‘A maiden’s head can never
So hard a point decide;
Row on, row on, for ever 15
I’d have thee by my side.’
The happy bridal over
The wanderer ceased to roam,
For, seated by her lover,
The boat became her home. 20
And still they sang together
As steering o’er the tide:
‘Row on through wind and weather
For ever by my side.’
? 1799.