A Prayer for Going to Paradise with Donkeys

By Francis Jammes
Rendered into English from the original French by MARCELLA HARDY

WHEN my time comes to go to You, O my Lord, grant
it may be on a day when the joyous countryside
shimmers. I wish, as I did here below, to choose
a way a path along which to go, just as I like,
to Paradise, where the stars shine in broad daylight.
I will take my staff and along the highway will I go,
and I will say to the donkeys, my friends:
‘I am Francis Jammes and I am going to Paradise,
for there is no hell in the Good Lord’s country.’
I will say to them: ‘Come, sweet friends or the blue sky,
poor loved creatures that, with a quick toss of your ears,
shake off persistent flies, blows, and bees....’

May I appear before you surrounded by these creatures
that I love so well because they bow their heads
meekly and, when they step, join their little feet
in a manner so gentle that it wrings the heart.
I will come followed by their thousands of ears,
followed by those that have carried baskets on their sides,
by those that dragged mummers’ carts
or the carts of broom-vendors and tinkers,
by those that have dented bins on their s,
by asses with broken gait and as swollen as water-skins,
by those on whom they fit little pants
because of the livid, oozing wounds
made by stubborn flies sitting around them.
Grant, Lord, that with those donkeys I come before You.
Grant that, in Your peace, angels lead us
towards grass-grown rills where cherries dance,
smooth-skinned as the radiant flesh of maidens,
and grant that, in this abode of the soul,
leaning over Your divine waters, I be like unto
the donkeys that see their meek and humble poverty
reflected in the limpid light of eternal love.