POETRY READING: The Shepherd’s Song, by Bruce Waddell

Performed by Val Cole

The Shepherd’s Song by Bruce Waddell

I cannot cross

It is not water but language that divides us

French is not my tongue

Canteloube’s Occitan beyond me

The composer stands his ground

He alone can make this work.

From the first bar I am lost to the world

For six minutes twenty seven seconds

On the soaring voice

Of Frederica Von Stade

Carried by her operatic tongue

I understand the idyllic the ancient shepherd lived

Floating on air the maiden’s warning

Reaches the far side of the river

And breaks the shepherd’s isolation

No longer alone with his sheep,

In love

With the melody lightly hovering over the meadow