Where Marvels Move

Note from the arranger

Pearl is a dream vision. A father falls asleep in the garden where his two-year-old daughter is buried. Spices fill his breath and carry him to a splendid landscape by a river. Across the river, he sees his daughter, now a grown-up maiden. She describes her sublime life to him, and he tries to go to her and share that glorious life, but it is not God’s will for him to cross the river yet. He wakes up in the garden. The manuscript contains the only extant version of four poems by the same author. The best known of these is “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The dialect of Middle English is highly alliterative, and images from the natural world permeate the language. The poet skillfully interweaves vivid phrases and ideas throughout each work, connecting human feeling, nature, and spiritual insight.

Poem

Where Marvels Move
From the Middle English Pearl
Translated by Linda Marie Zaerr

My soul has gone by God’s good grace
Adventuring where marvels move,
By wooded hills and crystal cliffs,
Where birds of flaming hues descend.
The gravel grinding underfoot
Is precious pearls from the East.

When beams between the clouds glide by,
The leaves as burnished silver slide
And whisper with a shimmering sheen,
A gleaming glory glimmering.
The splendor of that woodland wild
Makes my soul forget my grief.

A stream cuts through that gleaming land,
Sheer banks of beryl, steep and bright.
A rumbling roar, the river sweeps,
And at my feet a limpid deep,
Where emerald, sapphire, topaz blue,
Adorn the bottom of the pool.

As streaming stars on a winter night
Shine on high while shepherds sleep,
So every pebble in that pool
Embellishes my soul with light.
And when I cross that precious deep
My mortal grief will wash away.