Tarantella

Where the satyrs are chattering,

nymphs with their flattering

Glimpse of the forest enhance

All the beauty of marrow and

cucumber narrow

And Ceres will join in the dance.

Where the satyrs can flatter

the flat-leaved fruit

And the gherkin green

and the marrow,

Said Queen Venus,

"Silenus, we'll settle between us

The gourd and the cucumber narrow!"

See, like palaces hid in the lake,

they shake -

Those greenhouses shot

by her arrow narrow!

The gardener seizes the pieces, like

Croesus, for gilding the

potting-shed barrow.

There the radish roots,

And the strawberry fruits

Feel the nymphs' high boots

in the glade.

Trampling and sampling mazurkas,

cachucas and turkas,

Cracoviaks hid in the shade.

Where, in the haycocks,

the Country nymphs' gay flocks

Wear gowns that are looped over

bright yellow petticoats,

Gaiters of leather

and pheasants' tail feathers

In straw hats bewildering many

a leathern bat.

There they haymake,

Cowers and whines in showers

The dew in the dogskin bright flowers;

Pumpkin and marrow

And cucumber narrow

Have grown through

the spangled June hours.

Melons as dark as caves have for

their fountain waves

Thickest gold honey.

And wrinkled as dark as Pan,

Or old Silenus, yet youthful as Venus

Are gourds and the wrinkled figs

Whence all the jewels ran.

Said QueenVenus, 'Silenus

We'll settle between us

The nymphs' disobedience, forestall

With my bow and my quiver

Each fresh evil liver:

For I don't understand it at all!'