C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
The Boatmans Song
By Elisabeth, Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva) (18431916)
From ‘Songs of Toil’: Translation of John Eliot Bowen
D
Up-stream at blazing noon;
Down-stream upon the ripples,
Up-stream through sandy dune.
A pipe between the lips;
Up-stream, like beast one straineth
And galls the breat and hips.
The river’s king to-day,
If to-morrow like a beggar,
Despised, I tug away?
Upon the water-plain;
The marks of struggling footsteps
Long in the sand remain.