The people have seen in her only the natural dial, the division of the seasons, of the two great hours of the year. At Easter and at Michaelmas, at the epochs of family gatherings, of fairs and markets, of leases and rent-paying, the black and white swallow appears, and tells us the time. She comes to separate and define the past and the coming seasons. At these epochs families and friends meet together, but not always to find the circle complete; in the last six months this friend has disappeared, and that. The swallow returns, but not for all; many have gone a very long journey, longer than the tour of France. To Germany? No; further, further still.
Our companions, industrious travellers, followed the swallow's life, except that on their return they frequently could no longer find their nest. Of this the pendant bird warns them in an old German saying, wherein the narrow popular wisdom would fain retain them round the roof-tree of home. On this proverb, the great poet Rückert, metamorphosing himself into a swallow, reproducing her rhythmical and circular flight, her constant turns and returns, has founded a lyric at which many will laugh, but more than one will weep:—
"De la jeunesse, de la jeunesse,
Un chant me revient toujours—
Oh! que c'est loin! Oh! que c'est loin
Tout ce qui fut autrefois;
"Ce que chantait, ce que chantait
Celle qui ramène le printemps,
Rasant le village de l'aile, rasant le village de l'aile.
Est-ce bien ce qu'elle chante encore?
"'Quand je partis, quand je partis,
Etaient pleins l'armoire et le coffre.
Quand je revins, quand je revins,
Je ne trouvai plus que le vide.'
"O mon foyer de famille,
Laisse-moi seulement une fois
M'asseoir à la place sacrée
Et m'envoler dans les songes!
"Elle revient bien l'hirondelle,
Et l'armoire vidée se remplit.
Mais le vide du cœur reste, mais reste le vide du cœur,
Et rien ne le remplira.
"Elle rase pourtant le village,
Elle chante comme autrefois—
'Quand je partis, quand je partis,
Coffre, armoire, tout était plein.
Quand je revins, quand je revins
Je ne trouvai plus que le vide.'"