Najac

Neat craft emerging from the wood
The fortress is her figurehead
Close alongside the gorges moored
A peacock with its plumage spread
With sails all proudly crowding on
For ever brought by memory back
Come gaze on beautiful NAJAC
Bathed and refreshed by morning sun
Beneath blue sky she meditates
Counts her brown houses as she prays
With roofs of thick, grey, ancient slates
From dawn to shimmering of haze
And in a matchless ambience
Congenial to the traveller's mood
Noble NAJAC walks tall and proud
Basks in the sun's magnificence
I love her deep nocturnal calm
Her living water's serenades
Her granite fountains, both of them
Her ogives and her colonnades
But in my heart for ever there
Is blossoming apotheosis
NAJAC weighed down by loads of roses
When Maytime perfume balms the air
A lonely traveller I depart
My lovely dream must fade and die
Of this blest corner of the earth
I guard the precious memory
With softly singing Aveyron
The artist in me wide awake
To sing the marvel of NAJAC
Resplendent in the evening sun

Translated by Timothy Adès