Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/17

Rh his Provençal verse in order to make the French rendering of it more effective. "Remarkable," he says, "as this translation seems, it is most artfully adapted to impress a cultivated audience. Its very strangeness recommends it; just as in reading a literal translation of a German or English poem, we are always tempted to believe that the brusquerie of form, the abrupt and grotesque turns of expression, attest the vigor of the original text. But, strange or not, the translation has captivated the critics. The Provençal is not always understood, and that not by the common people merely, but even by those most accomplished in the language. And this is why the success of 'Mirèio,' instead of being announced to Paris by Provence, was not imposed upon but certainly recommended to Provence by the suffrages of Paris."

No doubt there is a degree of truth in this. A young poet,—and Mistral was but twenty-seven when "Mirèio" first appeared,—however earnestly devoted to the restoration of a decayed literature, must needs be principally influenced in his work by the hope of winning personal fame; and fame in Mistral's case depended on a Parisian success. But it matters little comparatively with what view he wrote, seeing that he produced the most original poem of modern times,—a poem rustic in theme, unconventional in treatment, full of the sunshine and the untaught grace of out-door