Wek mijn zachtheid weer
Dag 33 vrijdag 27 maart
At the railway station
Bij het thema: ‘Wek mijn zachtheid weer’ moest Diana Tyson denken aan dit gedicht van Thomas Hardy.
At the railway station, Upwey:
‘There is not much that I can do
For I’ve no money that’s quite my own!’
Spoke up the pitying child –
A little boy with a violin
At the station before the train came in, –
‘But I can play my fiddle to you,
And a nice one ’tis, and good in tone!’
The man in the handcuffs smiled;
The constable looked, and he smiled, too,
And the fiddle began to twang;
And the man in the handcuffs suddenly sang
With grimful glee:
‘This life so free
Is the thing for me!’
And the constable smiled, and said no word,
As if unconscious of what he heard;
And so they went on till the train came in –
The convict, and the boy with the violin.
Bijdrage van Diana Tyson
Het gedicht is op muziek gezet door Benjamin Britten: