1859: publication of this poem in Provençal and dedicated to Lamartine .(XII cantos)
Mistral became then popular in Paris, because Lamartine wrote enthusiastic comments about his poem. Mirèio is a love poem and a Greek tragedy in a sense.Mireille is the landlord 's daughter, wealthy and pretty. She is protected by her father Maître Ramon and her mother. The property called 'le Mas' enables her to be also secure in this realm,and nature around is protecting her as well. Women in the Mas are busy with feeding silkworms, as this was the period of silk production,"In the 18th and 19th centuries Provence experienced a boom in sericulture that would last until the First World War, with much of the silk produced being shipped north to Lyon. Viens and La Bastide-des-Jourdans are two of the communes of Luberon that profited the most from mulberry plantations that have since disappeared. Working at home under the domestic system, silk spinning and silk treatment employed many people and increased the income of the working class"
The finest love scene takes place around and on the mulberry.
Part-I-
Cant II: 'La culido' (la cueillette- leaves picking)
Miréio is gathering leaves to feed her silkworms, she is on the mulberry and catches sight of Vincent passing by.
Like his father, he weaves and mends reed-baskets,he goes from farm to farm, gets to know lots of people and places and tell tales: Mirèio is his faithful audience, she longs for his visits and stories!
Listening to his tales is like coming out of the Mas, getting a bit of fresh air out of her parents' sight:
"Nautre,sortèn jamai de nostre pijounié" .( we,folks, never go out of our pigeon-hole)
When she will flee out of her 'pijounié' because of her forbidden love for Vincent on her way to the saintes-Maries de la mer, a fatal omission will lead her to death. The sun is at the heart of this tragic tale.
Now, from the mulburry, she cannot help calling him:(in Prouvençau words have more music and meaning)
'-O Vincèn, ié faguè Mirèio
D'entre-mitan li vèrdi lèio,
Passes bèn vite, que!' (...).
He will soon join her in the tree, helping her and chatting, comparing their lives. No doubt he is much poorer than her, lives in a shabby little place by the Rhône, his mother died, his younger sister, Vinceneto, is already a servant in a farm in Beaucaire.
Mirèio is curious about Vincenette: does she look like her brother? naturally Vincent while describing his sister compares her to Mirèio, both long healthy hair but, different colouring , she is blonde and blue-eyed!
His physical attraction to Mirèio comes out, Mirèio is nicer:
"_Mai vous, de quant sias pu poulido!"(..) ( but you, you really are prettier)
While gathering leaves in the same canvas bag, first physical encounters, their hands joined:
"Elo emai éu trefouliguèron;
D'amour si gauto s'enflourèron,
E touti dous au cop, d'un fiò noun couneigu
Sentiguèron l'escandihado"(...)
(they both shivered, the blush of love flowered on their cheeks,they both felt at the same time the burning fire breaking out inside)
I wish I could paint the next scene!
Mirèio notices a nest, wants to fetch it, Vincent gets it! and then the branch gives way, they are in each other arms, Mirèio actually tells him she loves him, he cannot believe her because of their social differences, but she becomes serious and tells
him she could die if he does not respond to her love. Moved by her sincere feeling he then declares his passion for her:
calls her his princess, his enchanting fairy! he could do anything for her:
(...)"Tame,o chatouno encantarello,
Que se disiés: Vole uno estello!
l'a ni travès de mar, ni bos, ni gaudre foui,
l'a ni bourrèu, ni fiò, ni ferre
Que m'aplantèsse ! Au bout di serre,
Toucant lou cèu, l'anariéu querre,
E dimenche l'auriès, pendoulado à toun coui."(...)
(I love you so much !oh! my enchanting pretty maid that if you asked me to get a star, crossing seas, woods, risky water-falls would not bother me ! I would go and get it at the top of highest summits,touching the sky,
and it would be round your neck next Sunday!)
Vincent calls the birds 'pimparrrins' which is unkown to Mirèio, probably because she comes from another background, more educated and wealthy, not the labourers or itinerant workers like Ambroise and his son, he has to name the bird again to be understood:"De bèu sarraié blu"(beautiful blue tits!) they both know the saying about catching a nest and getting married in the year, provided none of the chicks escape before getting in the cage!
(We Would not dream of doing such thing like putting blue tits in a cage...)
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