Dans la profonde horreur des fumantes batailles
Elle marche en avant, sans coeur et sans entrailles,
[. ................]
Haletante, au pouvoir d’un force cruelle.h
(In the deep horror of the smoking battles
She marches forward, without heart and without feelings,
[. ...................]
Gasping in the power of a cruel force.)The final section, which like the first consists of seven stanzas, showsJoan just before her execution with no suggestion of Schiller’s miracu-
lous deliverance.
Eh bien, pâle martyre, achève ton calice!
Que l’épreuve terrible aujourd’hui s’accomplisse!h
(Well, pale martyr, drain your cup!
Let the terrible ordeal be carried out today!)We see Joan discarded by an indifferent God, who no longer needs her:
Aujourd’hui l’oeuvre est faite, Il permet que l’on brise
L’inutile instrument.h
(Today the work is done, he allows
The useless tool to be broken.)However, Pavlova implies that Joan has become a Christlike member of
the Lutheran elect, predestined for salvation:
Car tous s’écarteront de la Prédestinée!
[... .............]
Oh! Tu le savais bien, en quittant la chaumière,
[... .............]
Que tu succomberais sous la croix des Elus!h
(For everyone will stand back from the predestined one!
[ ................]
Oh! You knew well when you left the thatched cottage,
[ ................]
That you would perish under the cross of the elect!)In the last line, “Marche au bûcher ardent!” (March to the flaming
stake!), Pavlova in her literal use of the word “ardent” (flaming) ironi-
154 Karolina Pavlova