The Ballade Of Field-Coronet Jan Pieterse Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Toon van den Heever)

I
Ten Boers and Jan Pieterse holds the neck,
when the commando do depart through the ford,
where bullets do around them whistle away from the rocks
while the British fire with cannons at them.

II
Chorus:
"Just another hour to keep this neck, "
Jan Pieterse says while he looks upon his men
in the hell of lyddite-bombs coming down,
but everything is entrusted to God in prayer,

III
where the fiery smoke of the bullets do burn on the rocks,
every Boer shoots with a Mauser-rifle in his hand,
as through the ford the commando has to pass
and this thing takes bravery and not intellect.

IV
"Rush through he ford and drive the horses! "
Below there is the thundering of hooves as if the commando does understand
and the last horsemen is safely through when the dust settles
where Jan Pieterse and his men do firmly stand.

V
"Clear out! " He commands strictly, wild and stern.
"Hurry with the horses, " while the hooves do gnash over stone,
he hears behind him someone suddenly scream and he is alone
and the smell of death and blood and smoke is fresh,

VI
where he turns his horse around and gallops back through the bullets
and everyone but one of his men are dead,
he cannot leave him behind while the bullets sing around him,
as he is wounded and is in great distress.

VII
He jerks his own shirt off to stop the bleeding of the wounded man,
throws him over the saddle's pommel where he affronts the enemy,
by riding just at a walk through the rain of bullets,
as if God is warding off the cannons and the bullets from him.

VIII
"Stop firing!He is a hero! " Screams the British general
and it's yellow when the British do take off their helmets.
"Three cheers for the Boer! "They roar over and over
and Jan Pieterse waves back with his hat from his saddle,

IX
where for another moment he is etched against the distant horizon,
does go over the top of the hill with the red descending sun behind him,
in his hand he holds a Boer's fiery-hot Mauser-rifle
and for his dead comrades he would cry if he could.

[Reference: "Rit-rympie" (Riding-rhyme)by Toon van den Heever. Poet's note:A field-coronet: "During the second Anglo-Boer war: A official dealing with the military order in a ward. A field-coronet was an officer with the rank equivalent to that of a captain. A field-coronet was an important official, in the local government, who was subject to the magistrate and had functions of great meaning in accordance with local, administrative, judicial and police matters. In his ward the field coronet represented the magistrate."]

© Gert Strydom