The jargon of the jangling jays
The craiking craws,1 and keckling kays2
They deaved 3 me with their din,
The painted pawn 4 with Argus eyes
Can on his mayock 5 call;
The turtle wails on withered trees
And Echo answers all,
Repeating with greeting
How fair Narcissus fell
By lying and spying
His shadow in the well.6
I saw the hurcheon 7 and the hare
In hidlings hirpling 8 here and there,
To make their morning mange,9
the cuning, 10 and the cat,
The con,
Whais dainty downs with dew were wat,
With stiff mustachis strange.
The hart, the hind, the dae, the rae,1
The fulmart, 12 and false fox;
The bearded buck clamb up the brae,
With birssy 13 bears and brocks; 14
Some feeding, some dreading,
The hunter's subtle snares,
With skipping and tripping,
They played them, all in pairs.
"What would you give my friend?" quod he
"To have thae pretty wings to flee
To sport thee for a while;
Or what gif I should lend thee here
My bow and all my shooting gear,
Somebody to beguile?"
'That gear" quod I, "cannot be bought, Yet I would have it fain," "What gif," quod he, "it cost thee nought But rendering it again?" His wings then he brings then And bound them on my back: "Go fly now," quod he now; And so my leave I tak.
Too late aye their state aye,
All foolish folk espy:
Behind so, they find so
Remeid, and so do I.
Gif I had ripely been advised,
I had not rashly enterprised
To soar with borrowed pens;
Nor yet had 'sayed the archer craft,
Nor shot myself with sic a shaft,
As reason quite miskens.
Frae willfulness gave me my wound,
I had nae force to flee;
Then came I granand' to the ground:
"Friend welcome hame," quod he,
"Where flew ye, whom slew ye,
Or wha brings hame the booting?2
I see now," quod he now,
"Ye have been at the shooting."
Whilk flew sae thick before my een,
Some red, some yellow, blue, and green,
Sae troubled all my harnis,1
Till every thing appeared two
To my barbuilziet brain;
But long might I lie looking so,
Or Cupid come again;
Whose thundering, with wondering,
I heard up through the air;
Through clouds so he thuds 3 so,
And flew I wist not where.
Frae that I saw that god was gone,
And I in languor left alone,
And sore tormented too;
Some time I sighed till I was sad,
Some time I mused and maist gone mad,
I wist not what to do ;
Some time I raved, half in a rage,
As ane into despair:
To be opprest with sic ane page,
Lord gif my heart was sair;
Like Dido, Cupido,
I wadill 4 and warye,5
Wha reft me, and left me
In sic a fierie-farye.6
Wha, though in vain, does strive for strength
For to pull out her head,
Whilk profits naething at the length,
But hastes her to her dead;
With wristing and thristing,
The faster still is she:
There I so did lie so,
My death advancing to.
New coloured all their knops,
With dancing and glancing
In tirles dornik champ,1
Aye streamand and gleamand,
Through brightness of that lamp.
With earnest eye while I espy
The fruit betwixt me and the sky,
Half gate almaist to heaven;
The craig sae cumbersome to clim,
The tree sae high of growth, and trim
As any arrow even ;
I called to mind how Daphne did
Within the laurel shrink,
When from Apollo she her hid,
A thousand times I think;2
That tree then to me then,
As he his laurel thought
Aspiring, but tiring,
To get that fruit I sought.
To climb the craig it was nae boot
Let be3 to press to pull the fruit
In top of all the tree :
I saw nae way whereby to come
By ony craft to get it clumb,
Appearandly to me:
The craig was ugly, stay, and dreich,♦
The tree high, long, and small,
I was afraid to mount sae heich 5
For fear to get ane fall:
Affrayit to say it,
I looked up on loft,
Whiles minting,7 whiles stinting,
My purpose changed oft.
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