"Roman aqueduct"We went to see the aqueduct, the one sightof a surly village near the Pyrenees - surky because there're Cathars? or because they know they've tricked the visitors who write the road-signs and the guide-books. It's not Roman to my eyes - I would swear the man who bled the river Agly at the valley head and planted crops and married local women were Arabs. Straggling back from Poitiers they hid among these hills, remade their home here under fruitful clouds and under dolmens of long-forgotten Franks. Then their pretence saved them, but still they hate the name of Rome. They built the aqueduct, but they dare not say. ALISTAIR ELLIOT With kind permission of the poet |
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