Cruise from Luxembourg to Heidelberg
1st Episode
The Moselle
Hail, Moselle, generous mother of harvests and men!
Oh Moselle, blessed river of the countryside, blessed by the plowmen,
Beautiful Moselle whose waters roll at their feet with a smooth murmur,
River rich in hillsides perfumed by Bacchus, river with grassy banks,
Navigable like the ocean, river carried along a gentle languorous slope.
You wander your peaceful waves without ever fearing the shock of hidden reefs,
You drag across the fields your calm, sinuous and wrinkled waves,
You present a double path to the ships sailing with the current of your silvery waves,
Your lazy course does not deposit on your beaches an impure silt.
O Naiad of the Moselle, show me the groups of the flock that wears scales,
Describe to me these legions that swim in the transparent bosom of the azure river,
The light Shadow escapes the gaze thanks to its swimming all in speed,
And you Perch, daughter of the rivers comparable to the fish of the seas without infantry.
The azure of the river repeating the shadows of the hill, the river seems planted with vines,
The star Hesperus lengthens the shadows of the evening projecting the green hillsides on the Moselle,
All these ridges swim in undulation and the harvest swells in the crystal of the waters,
O Moselle, you whom a language rivaling the language of Latium adorns with so many worthy ornaments!
Quatrains of the ARIÉ…..JOIE inspired by a text by Ausonius
in his journey to Trier in 375
The Moselle, fiance of the Rhine, advances before him, timid as a young girl,
Beautiful when her bodice is adorned with roses, beautiful when her brow is crowned with vine branches,
She is afraid, she hesitates, she retraces her steps, she gets lost, she finds herself, she runs away,
Running here and there, she spreads her riches in the heart of a marvelous valley, in September.
This queen, who is greeted by the monuments of Trier, loves to get lost in the deserted plain,
She listens to the shepherd's song, she is also an amazon who leaps to the sound of the sovereign horn,
She calls the deer that the dogs harass, opens to him, like an asylum, the folds of her green dress,
She sits down at the harvesters' meal, the liqueur sparkles, it is the soul of the bride of the Rhine.
Quatrains of the ARIÉ…..JOIE inspired by a text by Auguste Lamey
Strasbourg poet and playwright of the 19th century.
Luxembourg
With a cordial “Hello” or “Moien”, welcome to Lucilinburhuc,
A city more than a thousand years old, this European capital is that of the Grand Duke,
Built on the foundations of a formidable fortress on the “Rocher du Bock”,
All accessible on foot, its sites are classified as UNESCO world heritage sites.
This "Gibraltar of the North" strikes visitors with its gorge dividing the city in two,
The Corniche path giving access to the casemates of the Pétrusse modified by Vauban,
The city has seen the birth of architectural gems such as the Adolphe bridge in nineteen hundred,
The Town Hall on Place Guillaume II and the pompous Grand Ducal Palace.
On the banks of the Alzette, the statue of the legendary siren Mélusine stands,
On Place de la Constitution was erected the memorial monument "Gëlle Fra",
20 m high obelisk, topped 3 m by a golden female figure,
In memory of the Luxembourgers of the First World War who died as soldiers.
Remich
Nicknamed the pearl of the Moselle, Remich, a Luxembourgish town,
nestled in a sublime panorama of vineyards,
Shelters, in the heart of the long underground galleries of the St Martin cellar, the secrets of noble wine,
Here is the reign of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Auxerrois,
a wine with the scent of regional yellow fruits,
On the esplanade, sits above the fountain the statue of Bacchus,
the Roman god of wine sitting on a barrel.
Trêves
The oldest German city, it was one of the seats of Roman imperial power
and a center of early Christianity,
The amphitheater accommodated 30,000 spectators, the imperial baths had
majestic decorative coverings,
The Roman Constantinian basilica with its length of 67 m, its width of 27 m
and its height of 30 m is impressive,
The famous and majestic Porta Nigra was designed both as a fortress
and as a grandiose monument.
In the heart of the city center, the Market Square, highly baroque, seduces
by its mixture of styles,
The old half-timbered houses mingle with pastel-colored houses,
decorated with white stucco,
The Renaissance fountain of the market, is crowned by St. Peter,
the Patron Saint of the cathedral and the city,
The little monsters and mischievous monkeys are dominated by the four cardinal virtues, Justice, Strength, Temperance and Prudence.
Cochem Castle
The castle of a thousand and one towers, a forest of beautiful pinnacles on the hillside,
Three hundred feet above the Moselle, the Reichsburg Cochem is erected
on a hillock planted with vines,
Built around the year 1000 by a count palatine, the archbishop of Trier in the 14th century.
will inherit the ducal castle,
Later, the Archbishop of Luxembourg will enlarge and fortify
this colossal architectural jewel.
During the Wars of the Palatine Succession, the troops
of King Louis XIV invaded the region,
They burned down the castle, which remained in a state of desolation until 1868,
A wealthy Berlin businessman rebuilt it in the neo-Gothic style,
In winter, mists envelop it, its magical figure sometimes appears and sometimes disappears
among the clouds.
In the centre, the centrepiece of the defensive system predominates
with impressive majesty,
This keep is the queen of the “forest” of small towers
reigning on the prominent hill,
As if sheltered by the shadow of the fortress, below,
the Moselle flows confidently,
On the steep slopes bordering the river, wine grape plantations
grow in abundance.
2nd Episode
The Rhine
The rivers, like immense clarions, sing to the ocean the beauty of the earth,
The cultivation of the fields, the splendor of the cities and the glory of men of character,
Among all the rivers, I love the Rhine, wild, but majestic, violent, but without fury
He who wipes his tawny mane, his muddy beard of a adventurer on the boats of the bridge.
It is a noble river, feudal, republican, imperial, worthy of being both German and French,
The Rhine is fast as the Rhone, wide as the Loire, like the Meuse encased,
Historic as the Tiber, royal as the Danube, tortuous as the Seine after Paris,
Spangled with gold like a river of America, covered with ghosts like a river of Asia.
It descends from Constance to Rotterdam, from the land of eagles to the city of herrings,
From the city of popes, councils and emperors, to the trading post of bourgeois and merchants,
Main cultural and commercial axis in central Europe it connects the Alps to the Ocean,
Its banks are lost in the twilight, its waters sing in a peaceful and powerful roar.
Poetry in quatrains of the ARIÉ…..JOIE
Inspired by the Rhine of Victor Hugo
in "Letters to a Friend" of 1842
At dawn a morning fog floats on the river,
the castles disappear in the thin mist,
Like celestial towers, vestiges pierce the cloudy veil
silent witnesses of a bygone era,
The first rays of the sun shine on the gentle waves of the Rhine
and illuminate the morning dew covering the vines,
Perched on steep promontories, the medieval castles
watch over the river that the centuries underline.
Koblenz
At the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, Koblenz has its roots in the Teutonic Roman era,
The city gate surrounded by a moat and equipped with a drawbridge bears witness to a strategic past,
On its promontory, the monumental statue of William I symbolizes the power of German unity,
Place des Jésuites, the white building of the former college is occupied by the town hall
with 24 sarabande windows.
Raising its imposing silhouette against the sky, with its slender spires,
its impressive stained glass windows bear witness,
The Cathedral built in 1217, is one of the most important proofs
of Gothic magnificence in Germany,
Offering a breathtaking view of the Rhine Valley, the 850 m cable car connects the city
to the Ehrenbreitstein fortress,
Majestic, fortified and imposing, besieged several times but never stormed,
of the Rhine it is the guardian.
Symbol of the "Rhine Guard", the Ehrenbreitstein fortress
at the confluence with the Moselle, protected Koblenz,
In Rhineland-Palatina, the Marksburg has preserved its medieval fortifications
of a fortress in decadence,
The fortress faces the citadels named
the enemy brothers, Sterrenberg and Liebenstein,
In the middle of the river, on the island of Falkenau, serving as a former toll,
the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle.
Near Sankt Goarshausen, the Loreley rock advance
reduces the width of the river by a quarter,
Many navigation accidents are at the origin of the legend
of the Lorelei putting sailors to the test,
This nymph of Germanic mythology with golden hair
attracted Rhine navigators,
Until their perdition by her songs, like the sirens
of mythology in the time of Homer the Elder.
The Lorelei
I don't know where I get that I am so sad,
A tale from ancient times, always comes back to me,
Evening falls and the Rhine flows silently, the breeze freshens,
The tops of the mountains sparkle in the setting sun under the lights of the artist.
The most beautiful of young girls, up there sits marvelously,
Her golden finery shines, she combs her golden hair, dreamy,
She combs it with a golden comb and sings a romance,
It is a fantastic melody, captivating, inviting to dance.
The boatman in his little boat is seized by a mad pain,
He no longer sees the reefs, he always looks towards the heights,
I believe that the waves have finally swallowed up the boatman and his boat,
And it is with her song that the Loreleï will have made her like a trierarch.
Rhymed poetry of L'ARIÉ…..JOIE inspired
by the poetic text on Loreley
by Heinrich Heine, composed in 1824
Heidelberg
O you, old Heidelberg on the Neckar and the Rhine, your University founded
in 1386 has produced many Nobel Prize winners,
Your castle of the Electors Palatine, perched on the top of the hill
overlooks the picturesque city and its impetuous river,
Straddled by the "Alte Brücke", the old bridge of the 18th century
adorned with magnificent sculptures in timeless sandstone,
The "Brückenaffe", or bridge monkey, with its mirror
Reflecting the face of the dishonest or vain.
Excerpt from a poem by Goethe while passing through Heidelberg in 1779
The rose and the lily in the morning dew,
Bloom in the garden near me,
In the back, bushy and familiar
Rises the rock in the height,
And surrounded by the lofty wood,
And crowned by a knight's castle,
The curve of the ridge runs downward
Until it meets the valley…
Guy Pujol Says l’Arié…..Joie