The Dark Star
Page 2Dans c'métier-là, faut rien chercher à comprendre.
Rene Benjamin Alak's Song
Where are you going,
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Where are you going?
To hear the thunder of the sea
And the wind blowing!--
To find a stormy moon to comfort me
Across the dune!
---Why are you weeping,
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Why are you weeping?
Because I found no wind, no sea,
No white surf leaping,
Nor any flying moon to comfort me
---What did you see there,
Naïa?
In the still noon--
What did you see there?
Only the parched world drowsed in drought,
And a fat bee, there,
Prying and probing at a poppy's mouth
That drooped a-swoon.
---What did you hear there,
Naïa?
In the still noon--
What did you hear there?
Only a kestrel's lonely cry
From the wood near there--
A rustle in the wheat as I passed by--
A cricket's rune.
Naïa?
Through the still noon--
Who led you homeward?
My soul within me sought the sea,
Leading me foam-ward:
But the lost moon's ghost returned with me
Through the high noon.
---Where is your soul then,
Naïa?
Lost at high noon--
Where is your soul then?
It wanders East--or West--I think--
Or near the Pole, then--
Or died--perhaps there on the dune's dry brink
Seeking the moon.
***
"The dying star grew dark; the last light faded from it; went out.
Prince Erlik laughed.
"And suddenly the old order of things began to pass away more
swiftly.
"Between earth and outer space--between Creator and created, confusing
and confounding their identities,--a rushing darkness grew--the
hurrying wrack of immemorial storms heralding whirlwinds through which
Truth alone survives.
"Awaiting the inevitable reëstablishment of such temporary conventions
as render the incident of human existence possible, the brooding Demon
which men call Truth stares steadily at Tengri under the high stars
which are passing too, and which at last shall pass away and leave the
Demon watching all alone amid the ruins of eternity."
The Prophet of the Kiot Bordjiguen