Pearl Read Free Page A

more I recognised and remembered her.

 
    15
    The more I focused on her fine face
    and gazed in awe at her graceful form,
    waves of exultant emotion overwhelmed me
    with a force like nothing I’d felt before.
    Love encouraged me to call out her name
    but shock had sent a hammer-blow to my soul;
    to see her there, in such strange surroundings
    had stunned my senses, almost stopping my heart.
    Then she lifted her head towards the light,
    and her face was so fine and ivory-white
    that its wonder stung me. I stood there bewildered,
    as if mesmerised for evermore.

IV
    16
    M ore in alarm than out of longing
    I stood spellbound, unable to speak,
    my eyes transfixed but my tongue frozen,
    as hushed and watchful as a hawk in a hall.
    This appearance, I thought, is an apparition,
    and fear held me: how would I feel
    if the vision before me vanished from view
    without contact or closeness occurring between us?
    Oh blissful one, oh unblemished soul,
    so flawless, fragile, so flatteringly slender.
    Then she rose up in resplendent robes,
    a precious being in priceless pearls.

 
    17
    Priceless pearls, imperially worn,
    were a marvellous sight, a miracle to the eye,
    her figure as vivid as fleur-de-lys
    as she walked forward towards the water.
    Her fine linen shone luminously white,
    open at the sides, every hem stitched
    with fabulous pearls – more stunning by far
    than any my eyes had fixed on before.
    And if memory serves, her flowing sleeves
    were adorned with pearls set down in pairs,
    and her matching gown glowed like morning,
    proudly apparelled with priceless pearls.

 
    18
    That princess wore a priceless crown
    studded with pearls and no other stones,
    pure clear pearls arranged in pinnacles
    among figures of expertly fashioned flowers.
    She wore no other circlet or headdress
    but her wimple fully encircled her face,
    her expression as earnest as a duke or earl,
    her complexion whiter than the bone of a whale.
    Loosely hanging, her hair lay lightly
    around her shoulders, shining like spun gold,
    and the almost transparent paleness of her pallor
    compared well with those priceless pearls.

 
    19
    Her priceless wristband and the pretty hems
    at her collar, cuffs and open neck
    were lined with pearls and pearls alone;
    everything she wore was wondrously white.
    But one pearl especially took pride of place,
    burnished and unblemished, positioned at her breast:
    the man who attempted to imagine its magnitude
    would find himself flummoxed, his mind befuddled.
    In truth, no tongue could ever tell
    a sensible syllable about that stone,
    so clean and proud and clear and pure,
    unparalleled even among priceless pearls.

 
    20
    In her priceless pearls that precious girl
    arrived at the river on the opposite reach.
    No man was gladder from here to Greece
    than I was, to watch her at the water’s edge.
    She was nearer to my heart than an aunt or niece
    and my love for her fierce and limitless.
    Then that special being spoke to me:
    she inclined low with a ladylike curtsy,
    removed the exquisite crown from her head
    and with grace and courtesy greeted me.
    What a blessing to be born just to speak with that girl,
    dressed and adorned in priceless pearls.

V
    21
    ‘O h pearl, in those priceless pearls,’ I said,
      ‘are you really my pearl, whose passing I mourn,
      and grieve for alone through lonely nights?
      Endless sorrow I have suffered and endured
      since you slipped from my grasp to the grassy earth;
      I am hollow with loss and harrowed by pain,
      yet here you stand, lightened of all strife,
      at peace in the land of Paradise.
      What fate has led my pearl forward
      and positioned me here to feel such pain?
      Entwined once, now torn from our twinship
      I live without joy like a jeweller without jewel.’

 
    22
    Â Then that jewelled one in her noble gems
    Â looked up and gazed with those grey-blue eyes,
    Â put on her crown of oriental pearls
    Â and spoke without sentiment, saying