The Four Seasons

by Carl Ewald

With few would I have flown, dear love;

So preen a prouder feather!

Then they flew singing through the wood. And they were hardly gone before two other birds came and sat on the same twig and sang the same thing in another manner.

But the leaves of the beech grew and there came more and more. They gathered closer and closer over the wood and, one fine day, it was quite impossible for the sun to find a hole to peep through.

Then the anemones became seriously frightened:

“Shine on us, Sun, or we shall die!” they cried.

They cried to the wind to sweep the horrid leaves away, so that the sun could see his own dear little anemones. They cried to the beech that it ought to be ashamed of itself, great, strong tree that it was, for wishing to kill innocent flowers. They cried to Spring to help them in their distress.

But the sun did not see them and Spring did not hear them and the beech took no heed of them and the wind laughed at them. There was such gladness in the valley that it drowned their voices; and they died quite unnoticed.

Every single day, new flowers came which were radiant and fragrant. Every single day, the birds discovered a new trill to add to their song. The stag belled in the glade, before even the sun was up, and the hind answered and sprang. Every second, the fish leapt in the water; and there was no end to the croaking of the frogs in the ditch. The snake wriggled along the edge of the brook and made play with his tongue; in every hedge sat small brown mice exchanging amorous looks. Even the flies buzzed more fondly than usual.

But, when the gladness was at its highest, the young Prince of Spring stood at the top of the valley, where the mountains enclose it towards the North. He looked out over his kingdom. His eyes were moist and dreamy, his mouth was ever smiling. He loosened from his shoulder the green silk ribbon in which his lute was slung, plucked once more at the strings and hummed to its accompaniment. It was a beautiful, hazy day, a day on which the birds subdued their songs and the flowers closed their petals.