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VIOLET ON THE MOUNTAIN<br />
The young man and the leopard<br />
The bare-cheeked youth told his story:<br />
“I went out hunting and wandered<br />
Steep paths, winding and narrow.<br />
Crossed over high mountain crests.<br />
I came to the head of a cliff and<br />
Found a herd of ibex;<br />
I shot the largest one,<br />
The valley rang with the crash of his horns.<br />
Then I started for home,<br />
But lost my way in the mountains.<br />
I came by a leopard’s den,<br />
By then it was late at night,<br />
When the leopard leapt out<br />
My eyes burned with godly wrath.”<br />
The lad and leopard joined battle,<br />
The earth was trembling beneath them,<br />
They made the cliffs to crumble,<br />
And tore the trees to shivers.<br />
His shield no longer shielded<br />
Him from the nimble beast.<br />
Nor did it give the lad time<br />
To make himself ready to fight.<br />
Its claws tore into the breast<br />
Of the youth’s chain-mail shirt.<br />
Still the lad kept his hand<br />
On the hilt of his sword.<br />
Then the French blade cut home<br />
And both fighters collapsed.<br />
The leopard hung over the cliff,<br />
Blood dripping down from its paws.<br />
At the head of the cliff slumped down<br />
The young man, his life-force now spent.<br />
He too colors the ground<br />
Crimson with blood pouring forth.<br />
Who will tell his mother?<br />
The seers now sit by her door.<br />
“What need has my poor mother<br />
Of oracle or fortune-teller?<br />
Let my companions go searching<br />
In crevices deep in the mountain.<br />
Perhaps they might find the bones<br />
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