Arthur Symons' "Slovak Gypsy," a "New" Translation

21 ARTHUR SYMONS' "SLOVAK GYPSY," A "NEW" TRANSLATION Introduced by Edward Baugh (University of the West Indies) Symons published the following translation in THE SATURDAY REVIEW, CV (6 June 1908), 723. It was never collected and has never been listed in any Symons bibliography. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only translation by Symons from Romany. The original appears in GLI ZINGARI: STORIA D'UN POPÓLO ERRANTE by the Marquis Adriano Colocci (Turin: Ermano Loescher, 1889), Chapter 8. Symons, an enthusiastic student of the Gypsies, was a member of the Gypsy Lore Society, to whose Journal he contributed a few papers, e.g. "In Praise of Gypsies," JOURNAL OF THE GYPSY LORE SOCIETY (April I9O8), 294-99. In an unpublished letter of 2 January 1888, he describes himself to James Dykes Campbell as "a fervent Borrovian.'" His ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH LITERATURE is dedicated to another Gypsy enthusiast, Theodore V/atts-Dunton. SLOVAK GYPSY I. I shall die, I shall die, And on the stones lie, And the bel Is of Nitra Go di ng-dong by. II. Nothing to eat or drink All the live-long week; I wish I were home again Drinking and eating meat. III. Beside the little hedgelet Here is a little herblet; And many young men came down there, Ti 11 this young man with his sickle began To mow the little herblet down there. IV. Where were you, my dear, when The rain fell and the wind blew? I was sitting by the fire Looking at you. 22 Why, dear cai, if you believed not in him, Did you wed? I believed in lovely shirt and trousers, Not in bread. Vl. Sweet girl, you have roses in your breast. Give me this one, lest I go and die. (The Father gets up in bed.) If you want roses you had best Go into the garden nigh. I do not want a rose out of the garden But the rose in your breast. NOTE 1 British Museum, Add. MS 49522. ...