Autumn

September comes in and we see all the homes

Alive with harvest and the fruit crop that comes.

In the orchards the peasants work under the leaves

While a mule stands by and the burden receives.

Fine fruit in abundance is carried away,

With pears, apples, peaches the farmers make play.

In gardens in terraces that reach up high

The stars of the cosmos are plucked from the sky.

Mothers and children come into sight,

Tasting the honey, the season’s delight.

Garden of Eden, in whose blessed ground

The treasures of nature in fullness abound.

They bring in the grapes, whose colors delight,

Lustrous festooned, black, red and white;

No palette of artist can with them compare,

A feast for the eyes with a bounty so rare,

And prophets in Scripture the vintage did greet,

Bound for the wine-press giving nectar so sweet.

The juice of the grape in abundance will flow

Then sleep in great jars in the darkness below.

Maidens white-draped with their beauty serene

Poured oil in the amphora of each king and queen,

Oil mystic and sacred from olives that bear

Legendary trees with arms raised in prayer.

The earliest raindrops give promise to come

Of winter’s black storms that vie with the sun.

I dream I am carried by some autumn leaf

In a world of adventure that defies all belief;

Twilight of evening comes red with dark veil

While on the ocean the fishing boats sail.

The last warmth of summer the darkness belies

For passion of love still lives ‘neath the skies.

In the red blaze of sunset the world is afire

With smold’ring life and burning desire.

Man opens his arms and Nature embraces

This season is one of God’s greatest graces

Winter

Winter comes with nights long and cold,

Holy nights after Christmas unfold.

Monastery silence lies on the ground

Until there comes the warning sound

Of looming tempest and lowering cloud

Raising their voice in the storm blast loud.

Rolling thunder and gales scourge the land

And breakers in fury give assault on the strand.

Horizons are lost in the gathering gloom

While rain gives drink to pine and to broom.

The dry thirsty soil drinks up this new wine

Till comes whirling snow to clothe it in white.

The people draw close to the warmth of the fire

Inviting the Muses to come and inspire.

And so the long evenings are whiled away

As music and poetry end the dark day.

Nature hides in the hearts of men

And merriment flees the outside scene.

In Europe Jupiter mounts his bull

For southern climes where the sun is full.

Some birds remain where warmth they find best

In holes in the ground or in a feather-lined nest.

The world is mirrored in crystalline ice

That holds all the landscape in tightening vice.

In Vulcan’s strong hand a great hammer is held

To forge a strong roof over embers unquelled.

Shivering children to their radiance draw near

But joy now kept secret soon will appear,

Fir trees which present and lamps gay enhance,

Then midnight processions to the Infant advance.

Feasting and firelight give joy to December

As parents and children, the Christ-child remember.

March equinox comes, then the first full round moon

Foretells of Christ’s rising on Easter come soon.

Now we delight to quaff the good wine

That in winter gives warmth and a smile in this time.

Now come clearer skies and flowers appear,

Life is renewed and the summer is near.

Joseph Matar
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Translated from French: K.J.Mortimer