The Project Gutenberg eBook, Romance of the Rabbit, by Francis Jammes,
Edited by Gladys Edgerton, Translated by Gladys Edgerton

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Title: Romance of the Rabbit

Author: Francis Jammes

Release Date: July 14, 2004 [eBook #12909]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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ROMANCE OF THE RABBIT

By

FRANCIS JAMMES

Authorized Translation from the French by Gladys Edgerton

1920

INTRODUCTION

The simple and bucolic art of Francis Jammes has grown to maturity in
the solitude of the little town of Orthez at the foot of the Pyrenees,
far from the clamor and complexities of literary Paris. In the preface
to an early work of his he has given the key of his artistic faith:
"My God, You have called me among men. Behold I am here. I suffer and
I love. I have spoken with the voice which you have given me. I have
written with the words which You have taught my mother and my father
and which they transmitted to me. I am passing along the road like a
laden ass of which the children make mock and which lowers the head. I
shall go where You wish, when You wish."

And this is the way he has gone without faltering or ever turning
aside to become identified with this school or that. It is this simple
faith which has given to Francis Jammes his distinction and uniqueness
among the poets of contemporary France, and won for him the admiration
of all classes. There is probably no other French poet who can evoke
so perfectly the spirit of the landscape of rural France. He delights
to commune with the wild flowers, the crystal spring, and the friendly
fire. Through his eyes we see the country of the singing harvest where
the poplars sway beside the ditches and the fall of the looms of the
weavers fills the silence. The poet apprehends in things a soul which
others cannot perceive.

His gift of sympathy with the poor and the simple is infinite. He
is full of pity and tenderness and enfolds in his heart and in his
poetry, saint and sinner, man and beast, all that which is animate
a