Sunday 17 November 2013

Ailis de la Marche, Award of the Orion, 2013

Out of the sweetness of the Marche,
‘Mongst the leaves, ‘neath the larch,
A trouvere raises up her voice,
Forming the verse of her new song,
Words of her home to cause rejoice,
For that for which she most does long.

From finest sweetest place We see
From where We sit as Royalty,
Ailis de la Marche refrain,
Praising northland noble deeds,
Singing once and then again,
Laying sweetest word-fame seeds.

So Adrielle and Nigel king,
To recognize how well she sings,
An Orion we bestow on her,
At Kingdom A&S, Our writ,
On the sixteenth of November,
While in Ardchreag We sit.


The branches leaf, the small birds sing,
Each one chanting in its own speech,
Forming the verse of its new song,
Then is it good a man should reach
For that for which he most does long.

From finest sweetest place I see
No messenger, no word for me,
So my heart can’t laugh or rest,
And I don’t dare try my hand,
Until I know, and can attest,
That all things are as I demand.

This love of ours it seems to be
Like a twig on a hawthorn tree
That on the tree trembles there
All night, in rain and frost it grieves,
Till morning, when the rays appear
Among the branches and the leaves.


So the memory of that dawn to me
When we ended our hostility,
And a most precious gift she gave,
Her loving friendship and her ring:
Let me live long enough, I pray,
Beneath her cloak my hand to bring.

I’ve no fear that tongues too free
Might part me from Sweet Company,
I know with words how they can stray
In gossip, yet that’s a fact of life:
No matter if others boast of love,
We have the loaf, we have the knife!


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