The possessive adjective ‘nos’ places Ferracci alongside the Corsicans, and yet Corsica is reduced in his poetry to snapshots of historico-mythical figures, peasant traditions and legends. ‘La Pierre de sang’, subtitled ‘Légende corse’, offers the tale of a countess whose husband is murdered by an unfaithful servant who claims he drowned. When she visits the river, the blood-stained rocks reveal the truth: ‘Et les rouges cailloux parlent en gémissant’ (p. 109). The poem closes with the part of the story which has passed into folk legend:
C'est depuis que l'on voit au fond de la rivière,
Le sang du comte Henri, qui ressemble à la pierre,
Et dit, en dénonçant un crime fort ancien:
‘O Corse! tu n'auras jamais, jamais de bien…’
-- David Evans, ‘Creating the Island Imaginary: Corsican Poetry in French (1870–1960)’
Of course classic parallel between the old Pierre de sang and Napoleon’s brief forays into short stories with the English countess and her murdered husband with the touching-of-blood-as-proof. Obviously it’s an old trope and permeates almost all western Christian story-telling traditions, it’s just fun and interesting to find the parallels with Corsican legends and Napoleon’s youthful writing.
