Woodcock : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Woodcock / Giles Watson's poetry and prose
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-継承 2.1 |
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| 説明 | The WoodcockY Ceiliog CoedWoodcock, amongst hens adored,Your black cloak with bronze adorned,Brave bird with brow of coral,Pica-pied, coped to carol,Dappled bard: many a brideObeys you, young blueman-bird.Castle-captain, girl-consoler,Wood-cassocked self-concealer,Kite-high outlaw, cloud-rodingGhost abbot – call foreboding – Dapper clergyman of oakWith your scapular of smoke,Churchman in an autumn gown,Friar hiding in the green,Mottled livery, clad by windsYour chasuble: folded wings,Your doublet plumed wave-white,Black-mantled, well-wrought.Like a monk you dress, and liveSworn to keep the Rule of Love,Devout, dauntless, prayerful, bold,Rain and birch your only bread(A flock might feed on each branchOf your holy hilltop birch).Your work: twice a day, to callUpon a host, that wild hens allMay have pleasure, flirt and swoon.Such delight – but I presume!You take part – by glade and leaf – In dark obsequies of love.Be my llatai, questing knight,Take missives to my foam-whiteGirl: go there on the morrow,Dark-cloaked, eastwards – feign sorrow – Until you fly by water-leesAnd a vale of moonlit trees,Where the river on the plainSplits the meadowland in twain,Where birds roost on harvest sheavesAnd lapwings hide amid leaves.Long billed llatai, there alightAt water’s edge in dark night.Watch, in woods where waters run,And at the rising of the sunDraw near to her, of Nyf’s shade.Fly, bird! Greet her in the glade – For yesterday, she pledged troth(I have a hunch she spoke truth)And bade me love her, by the Pope!So, it seems, I’ve grounds for hope.Woodcock, hued by day and night,My foam-white girl invite! Invite!On yonder hill, she comes to me:Lend your cloak, and none shall see.Poem attributed to Dafydd ap Gwilym; paraphrased by Giles Watson. It is possible that the poem is a fifteenth century imitation, but the detailed and observant description of the bird is typical of Dafydd’s work. The poet makes much of the bird’s particoloured plumage, which provides the living bird with such effective camouflage that when it stands still against a background of fallen leaves and withered bracken, it becomes virtually invisible. The solitary lifestyle of the bird, combined with its nocturnal habits and the male’s habitual “roding” flights during courtship, make it an ideal choice for a llatai, or love messenger. The references to the magpie (“Pica-pied”) and coral may seem odd in light of the brindled-brown colouration of the bird itself, but the poet doubtless makes these references – as well as implying that the bird is dressed in motley like a jester – as a means of describing the dappled appearance of the plumage. Five hundred years before Hopkins, Dafydd too saw glory in dappled things. The poet appears to think that the male woodcock has several mates, like a sultan with his harem; “blueman” is a literal translation of the Welsh “blowmon”, which has previously been translated as “blackamoor”. His conviction that the bird feeds only on water and birch-tips, whilst erroneous, is also doubtless based on observation. Woodcocks eat worms, but since they void their alimentary tracts whenever they take flight, birds which have been shot or captured always have empty stomachs. Because of this, the dietary preferences of woodcocks were still an enigma to Gilbert White in the eighteenth century, despite repeated dissection. |
| 撮影日 | 2010-08-08 13:53:52 |
| 撮影者 | Giles Watson's poetry and prose , Oxfordshire, England |
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