Atala's Lament

[From the French of Chateaubriand]

The Indian maiden turned at eve,
In exiled loneliness to grieve,
And shed, by Mississippi’s side,
Her tears upon its turbid tide;
For she had left in passion’s hours,
Her Florida’s beloved bowers,
And thus, amid the stranger throng,
Poured forth an exile’s plaintive song:

“Oh, happy they who ne’er have seen
The smoke of alien fires!
Nor guests at other feasts have been,
Than their own sires’!
Ah! should the blue-jay of the West
Say to the Southern nonpareil,
‘Why not amid our branches rest?
Why only mourning numbers tell?
Have we not limpid waters here—
Delightful shades, abundant food,
And flowery fields, and orchards fair,
As you have in your native wood?’
Yet would the stray bird answer then,
‘My nest is in the jasmine grove!
Oh, give my golden skies agen,
And bright savannahs that I love!’
“Oh, happy they who ne’er have seen
The smoke of alien fires,
Nor guests at other feasts have been,
Than their own sires’!
When, after hours of toil and pain,
The weary traveler sinks at night,
And sees anear him, on the plain,
Fair cottages with many a light;
In vain he views their pleasant glow—
No hospitable fare they yield—
For, should he enter with his bow,
All welcome is at once concealed;
Again his sturdy bow he takes,
And, weak, insulted, turns away,
And totters on through tangled brakes,
And deserts wide till dawn of day.

“Oh, happy they who ne’er have seen
The smoke of alien fires,
Nor guests at other feasts have been,
Than their own sires’!
Dear stories round the social hearth!
Soft songs with tenderest feelings rife!

Pure deeds of love, and tones of mirth,
So needful in this weary life!—
Ye, ye have filled the days of those
Who ne’er their parent land have left,—
Who ne’er have been, ‘mid stranger foes,
Of all that’s best on earth bereft!
They live in bliss, and when life ends,
Their graves are in their mother’s breast;
By setting suns and tears of friends,
And fair religion sweetly blest!
Oh, happy they who ne’er have seen
The smoke of alien fires,
Nor guests at other feasts have been,
Than their own sires’!”