Follow the Gypsy Rover's Trail
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Inspiration for This Poem
Some time ago I enjoyed reading a poem written by Rudyard Kipling about gypsies. I couldn't recall the name of it but a Google search for gypsy poems by Kipling came up with "The Gipsy Trail."
Where I have the lines "Follow the gypsy rover's trail" Kipling's poem read "Follow the Romani patteran."
Patteran
Noun
- Any of several coded signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by one Rom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled.
Origin
From Romani patrin (“leaf”), perhaps specifically from an infected form like the Vlax Romani pateryánsa.
Follow the Gypsy Rover’s Trail
The white hawk hovers overhead,
A moth’s drawn to a candle's flame
And the roving gypsy travels the land,
Ne’er two places the same.
“Ne’er two places the same, my dear,
I’ll follow a trail that’s true,
To the other side of the world and back,
But always returning to you.”
So leave your home in the Romani camp
Away from the fog of moors,
A new dawn beckons at the end of Earth,
As a gypsy the world is yours.
The black bear goes to the stream to fish,
The frogmouth owl to her nest,
And the Romani lad to the Romani lass
At the end of his roving quest.
The lizard runs in the ruffled grass,
The deer to the wooded glen,
And the Romani lad and the Romani lass
Will be reunited again.
Recommended
Will be reunited again, again!
When he returns from his trek,
Following the path of the gypsy trail
To the ends of the Earth and back.
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Follow the gypsy rover’s trail
North where the long ships sail,
And bows break through the seas of ice,
And the masts are pocked with hail.
Follow the gypsy rover’s trail
To the west where the sleepy sun sets,
Where everything’s different from all that you know
And you see things you’ll never forget.
Follow the gypsy rover’s trail
East to the Orient’s charm,
Where the sunrise highlights the sampans sails
On seas that are silent and calm.
The eagle soars high on currents of air,
The wolf to his home in the woods,
And the heart of a man to the heart of a maiden
Is a symbol of all that is good.
And the love of a man for the love of a maiden,
A Romani boy for a girl.
A new day awaits when we follow our hearts
And all the worlds wonders unfurl.
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© 2019 John Hansen
