Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale, Part One (A Minimalist Translation) Poem by Forrest Hainline

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale, Part One
(A Minimalist Translation)

There is, at the west side of Italy,
Down at the foot of Vesulus the cold,
A lusty plain, abundant with vitally
Where many a tower and town thou may behold,
That founded were in time of fathers old,
And many another delectable sight,
Saluces this noble country hight.

A marquis once lord was of that land,
As were his worthy elders him before;
And obeisant, ever ready to his hand,
Were all his lieges, both lesser and more.
Thus in delight he lives, and has done yore,
Beloved and dread, through favor of Fortune,
Both by his lords and of his commune.

Therewith he was, to speak of lineage,
The gentlest born of Lombardy,
A fair person, and strong, and young of age,
And full of honor and of courtesy;
Discreet enough his country for to guide,
Except in some things that he was to blame;
And Walter was this young lord's name.

I blame him thus: that he considered naught
In time coming what might him betide,
But on his lust present was all his thought,
As for to hawk and hunt on every side.
Well nigh all other cares let he slide,
And eek he nolde -and that was worst of all -
Wed no wife, for naught that may befall.

Only that point his people bore so sore
That flockmel on a day they to him went,
And one of them, that wisest was of lore-
Or else that the lord best would consent
That he should tell him what his people meant,
Or else could he show well such matter -
He to the marquis said as you shall hear:

"O noble marquis, your humanity
Assures us and gives us hardiness,
As oft as time is of necessity,
That we to you may tell our heaviness.
Accept, lord, now of your gentleness
That we with piteous heart unto you plain,
And let your ears not my voice disdain.

"All have I naught to do in this matter
More than another man has in this place,
Yet for as much as you, my lord so dear,
Have always shown me favor and grace
I dare the better ask of you a space
Of audience to show our request,
And you, my lord, to do right as you lest.

"For certain, lord, so well us liketh you
And all your work, and ever have done, that we
Nor could not us self devise how
We might live in more felicity,
Save one thing, lord, if it your will be,
That for to be a wedded man you lest;
Then were your people in sovereign hearts rest.

"Bow your neck under that blissful yoke
Of sovereignty, not of service,
Which that men call spousal or wedlock;
And think, lord, among your thoughts wise
How that our days pass in sundry ways,
For though we sleep, or wake, or roam, or ride,
Ay flees the time; it will no man abide.

"And though your green youth flowers as yet,
In creeps age always, as still as stone,
And death menaces every age, and smites
In each estate, for there escapes no one;
And all so certain as we know each one,
That we shall die, as uncertain we all
Be of that day when death shall on us fall.

"Accept then of us the true intent,
Who never yet refused your hest,
And we will, lord, if that you will assent,
Chose you a wife, in short time at the least,
Born of the gentlest and of the meest
Of all this land, so that it ought seem
Honor to God and you, as we can judge

"Deliver us out of all this busy dread,
And take a wife, for high God's sake!
For if it so befell, as God forbid,
That through your death your line should slake,
And that a strange successor should take
Your heritage, O woe were us alive!
Wherefore we pray you hastily to wive."

Their meek prayer and their piteous cheer
Made the marquis's heart have pity.
"You will, " said he, "my own people dear,
To that I never erst thought strain me.
I me rejoiced of my liberty,
That seldom time is found in marriage;
There I was free, I must be in servitude.

"But natheless I see your true intent,
And trust upon your intelligence, and have done ay;
Wherefore of my free will I will assent
To wed me, as soon as ever I may.
But there as you have proffered me to-day
To choose me a wife, I you release
That choice and pray you of that proffer cease.

"For God it woot, that children often been
Unlike their worthy elders them before;
Bounty comes all of God, not of the strain
Of which they been engendered and born.
I trust in God's bounty, and therefore
My marriage and my estate and rest
I him betake; he may do as he lest.

"Let me alone in choosing of my wife -
That charge upon my back I will endure.
But I you pray, and charge upon your life,
What wife that I take, you me assure
To worship her, while that her life may dure,
In word and work, both here and everywhere,
As she an emperor's daughter were.

"And furthermore, this shall you swear: that ye
Against my choice shall neither grouch nor strive;
For since I shall forgo my liberty
At your request, as ever must I thrive,
There as my heart is set, there will I wive;
And but you will assent in such manner,
I pray you, speak no more of this matter."

With heartly will they swore and assent
To all this thing -there said no wight nay -
Beseeching him of grace, er that they went,
That he would grant them a certain day
Of his spousal, as soon as ever he may;
For yet always the people somewhat dread,
Lest that the marquis no wife would wed.

He granted them a day, such as him lest,
On which he would be wedded surely,
And said he did all this at their request.
And they, with humble intent, buxomly,
Kneeling upon their knees full reverently,
Him thanked all; and thus they have an end
Of their intent, and home again they went.

And hereupon he to his officers
Commands for the feast to purvey,
And to his privy knights and squires
Such charge gave as him list on them lay;
And they to his commandment obey,
And each of them does all his diligence
To do unto the feast reverence.

© 2020
Forrest Hainline