Susan Ranson
Under the Lime-tree
(from the German of Walther von der Vogelweide - c.1170-c.1227)
Under the lime-tree
in the field
we found and shared our lovers' rest:
there you will see
the grasses yield
and broken herbs and flowers pressed.
By the wood and through the vale,
tandaraday,
sweetly sang the nightingale.
Walking to meet him
in the meadow,
I found my love was there before.
Courtly his greeting -
honoured lady -
and I am blessed for ever more.
Tell me, did he kiss my lips?
Tandaraday,
see how red he kissed my lips.
For there he did make me,
rich and tender,
a bed of flowers softly bent.
And there at the lime-tree
all who wander
(our hearts will laugh in close content)
may, at seeing roses spread,
tandaraday,
mark where I have laid my head.
Yet shame would fill me
were it ever
revealed (dear Lord!) he came so nigh.
And why he was with me
none shall ever
discover, save but he and I -
and a little bird, who may,
tandaraday,
well be trusted not to say.
Page(s) 18-19
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The