Challenge for a Mounted Tournament in the Form of a Ballet

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english translation

Challenge for a Mounted Tournament in the Form of a Ballet

These entering knights send word that they are heir
to the River Meander, sons of the waters where
their fathers learned to guide and wheel their horses
just as Meander twists and turns in its courses.

Pyrrhus, in his armor, danced on Achilles’
grave in similar ways, and Aeneas, on Sicily’s
shore, honored his father with tournaments
of war, directing a mounted dance of defense
where Trojan boys put stallions through their paces
in a hundred thousand martial interlaces.

Pallas trained these horses to the bit
and guides them currently with hand and wit;
she schooled them in her spirit with such skill
that by the bridle, they know the rider’s will.

Observe them now as they curvet and dance,
retreat and step away; as they advance,
approach and come together. Like hails of darts,
first long, then short, playing their wartime parts
in a show of peace, they crisscross face to face,
obliquely or straight on, in the end to trace
a circle or a square, as if this were
a labyrinth where anyone might err
by straying onto paths that have no key—

as if they were dolphins dancing in the sea,
as if they were patterns formed by troops of cranes
against the blue and white of heaven’s lanes.

 

      — Translated from the French of Pierre de Ronsard [abridged]
              by Terese Coe

 

 

original French poem

Cartel pour le combat à cheval, en forme de balet

Ces nouveaux Chevaliers par moy vous font entendre
Que leurs premiers ayeuls furent fils de Méandre,
À qui le fleuve apprit à tourner leurs chevaux
Comme il tourne et se vire et se plie en ses eaux.

Pyrrhe en celle façon sur le tombeau d’Achille
Feit une danse armée, et aux bords de Sicile
Enée en decorant son pere de tournois,
Feit sauter les Troyens au branle du harnois,
Où les jeunes enfans en cent mille manieres
Meslerent les replis de leurs courses guerrières.

Pallas qui les conduit, a de sa propre main
Façonné leurs chevaux, et leur donna le frein,
Mais plustost un esprit, qui sagement les guide
Par art, obeissant à la loy de la bride.

Tantost vous les voirrez à courbettes danser,
Tantost se reculer, s’approcher, s’avancer,
S’escarter, s’esloigner, se serrer, se rejoindre
D’une pointe allongée, et tantost d’une moindre,
Contrefaisant la guerre au semblant d’une paix,
Croisez, entrelassez de droit et de biais,
Tantost en forme ronde, et tantost en carrée,
Ainsi qu’un Labyrinth, dont la trace esgarée
Nous abuse les pas en ses divers chemins,

Ainsi qu’on voit danser en la mer les Dauphins,
Ainsi qu’on voit volet par le travers des nues
En diverses façons une troupe de Grues.

 

      — [abridged]