Like once upon a time within
Old tales from magic’s haven,
There lived, of very noble kin,
A most enchanting maiden.
She was the only child they raised,
Fair and of virtues many,
As is the Virgin midst the praised
Or midst the stars Selene.
Beneath the dark, majestic vaults
She walks, her steps abating
Close to the window where, in alts,
3) The Evening Star’s awaiting.
She glances at his distant rays
That glow and light the ocean,
While on the moving water ways
Black sailships set in motion.
She sees him now, she sees him then,
Thus ripens her desire;
From watching over and again,
His love for her grows higher.
When on her elbows her head leans,
Sweet reveries prolonging,
Her heart and soul can find no means
To quieten their longing.
And so alive his light cascades
Whenever dusk gets nearer,
Pervading the black castle’s shades
As he’s about to see her...
* * *
He trails her footsteps as she leaves
Towards her night’s retire,
And with his frozen sparkles weaves
A web of flashing fire.
And when she lies in bed to rest,
A sleepy child so candid,
He strokes her arms set on her chest,
He closes her sweet eyelid;
And from the mirror’s depth his glare
Reflects upon her body,
Upon her eyes shut unaware,
Upon her face leaned mildly.
Seeing her lips of smiling sweep,
He shivers in the mirror,
As he pursues her in her sleep
To hold her spirit dearer.
But then she speaks to him in dreams,
And sighs within a sad plea:
“Oh, sweet lord who my night redeems,
Why don’t you come? Come by me!
Descend, my stellar prince so kind,
Along a soft ray gliding,
Enter the castle and my mind,
Light to my life providing!”
He listens eagerly to her,
His flame brightly reviving,
Then suddenly becomes a blur
Into the dark sea diving.
The water around where he falls
Spawns rings of growing sizes,
While he from unknown deepness crawls
And as a young man rises.
Walking as smoothly as on sand
Through open window spaces,
He holds a sceptre in his hand
Enfolded in reed laces.
He looks just like a youthful king
With silky golden tresses;
A bluish shroud tied in a ring
His naked shoulders dresses.
Yet his pale face bears the disguise
Of a white death mask’s glimmer –
A handsome ghost with lively eyes
That only outwards shimmer.
“From my own sphere I came, your call
To follow with devotion,
My father is the heavens tall,
My mother is the ocean.
To reach the place that is your home,
To get to see you closer,
I had to leave the sky’s fair dome
And be reborn of water.
Oh, come, my holy treasured love,
Give up your world forever!
I am the Evening Star above,
You be my true bride ever!
Down there, in palaces of pearls
We’ll live for many ages,
And everywhere the sea unfurls
Its souls shall be your pages.”
“Oh, you are fair as only dreams
Of angels could be showing,
But down the path where your light streams
I’ll never think of going;
A stranger in both tongue and wear,
Your iced glow you deliver,
Yet I’m alive, while dead you stare,
And your eye makes me shiver.”
* * *
A day goes by, and two more, then,
As night the heavens closes,
The Evening Star shows up again
And his bright rays exposes.
Inevitably in her dreams
His image keeps returning
And her lord of the wavy streams
Inspires her heart’s yearning:
“Descend, my stellar prince so kind,
Along a soft ray gliding,
Enter the castle and my mind,
Light to my life providing!”
From up there when he hears her pray,
In sorrow he retires,
And soon the sky begins to sway
Around where he expires;
The air fills up with purple flame
That through the whole world surges,
And from the chaos vales sublime
A graceful face emerges.
On black curls like vine tendrils smooth
His crown seems to be burning,
He comes surrounded by pure truth
Into a sun’s blaze turning.
Amidst the folds of his black shroud
Two marble arms are shaping,
But then a sad and pensive cloud
His pallid face is draping.
And yet his large and splendid eyes
Shine deeply with desire,
Like two voracious passion cries
That through the dark transpire.
“From my own sphere I barely came
Once more your call to follow;
My father is the sun aflame,
My mother the night hollow;
Oh, come, my holy treasured love,
Give up your world forever!
I am the Evening Star above,
You be my true bride ever!
Oh, come, and in your golden hair
Let me twine starry laces,
And on my heavens be my pair,
Most lovely of all faces.”
“Oh, you are fair as only dreams
Of demons can be showing,
But down the path where your light streams
I’ll never think of going!
Your cruel love is inhumane
And hurts my fibers deeply,
My large eyes are in heavy pain,
Your fiery gazing burns me.”
“But how could I come down to you?
Do you not see the reason,
That my time never will be through,
While yours is just a season?”
“I know not where to seek an end,
Nor how to be beginning –
Although your words I understand,
I cannot see their meaning;
But if you truly wish my heart
To love you like no other,
Then from the heavens you depart,
Become a mortal, rather.”
“You ask me my immortal glow
To give up for your kisses,
But I in turn wish you to know
How deep my love for you is;
Indeed, I shall be born in sin,
By novel laws abiding;
To the eternity I’m kin,
From it I’ll be dividing.”
And he keeps going… out of sight.
For love of a young maiden
He vanishes from his sky’s height,
For days remaining hidden.
* * *
About the same time Catalin,
Slick boy in servant jackets,
In charge of pouring beverage in
Men’s goblets at the banquets,
A page who carries all around
The empress’s long dresses,
A bastard child, abandoned found,
Yet not shy with his glances,
With rosy cheeks as peony sprout
As fresh – cute little sinner,
Quietly sneaks, spying about
And eyeing Catalina.
But look how lovely is her sight,
And gorgeous… oh, God bless her!
Yes, Catalin, now is just right
To try your luck, no lesser.
He steals a hold of her within
A room that the house borders.
“What now, you wicked Catalin?
Go ‘way and mind your orders!”
“What now? I wish to see you slip
Away from thoughts so lonely,
And rather laugh, and give my lip
A little buss, one only.”
“But I don’t know what you speak of –
Leave me alone, go yonder!
Oh, at the Evening Star above
I painfully bewonder.”
“If you don’t know, I’d show you round
Love’s yard petal by petal,
Only unwind and do not frown,
But bear with me a little.
Just like a hunter lays a noose
To trap young birds so charmful,
Likewise, when I my arm let loose,
Embrace me in an armful;
And stare your eyes with still amaze
Into my eyes intently…
When your slim waist I try to raise,
Upon your toes rise gently;
When I look downwards, to my face
Keep your face straight up further,
So we can gaze with endless grace
And sweetness at each other;
And such that everything is said
Between ourselves, my lover,
When kissing you I bow my head,
Kiss me over and over. ”
She listens to the naughty boy
Astonished and distracted,
And playfully and rather coy,
Now snubbing, now attracted .
She says to him: “Since I was small
I learned to know you closely,
And chatty and no good at all,
You would quite suit me, mostly…
Alas, a stellar prince arose
From a forgotten kindness,
And to unbound horizon glows
Above the ocean’s blindness;
And secretly my eyelids seize,
As they plunge into weeping
Whenever waves upon the seas
Towards him journey sweeping;
He shines with everlasting love,
My pain away beseeches,
And yet ascends so high above
To be beyond my reaches.
His sad and frozen light rays spill
Across two worlds departed…
Forever I will love him, still
Forever we’ll be parted…
And for that reason my days are
As empty as the prairies,
While nights are filled with holy charm,
Mysterious like fairies.”
“You are but childish, that is all…
Let’s run afar forever,
And hope that they will lose our call
So none will know us ever.
For in our hearts we shall be twin,
We shall have joy and wellness,
And you’ll no longer miss your kin
Or dream of stellar highness.”
* * *
The Evening Star departs. The sky
With growing wings he beckons,
And thousand-years-long flights go by
In just as many seconds.
Stars flood the sky that lies below,
The tall sky stars amasses –
He seems to be a lightning’s flow
Rambling amongst their masses.
Out of the chaos vales sublime
Surrounding him and surging,
He sees, beyond the dawn of time,
The streaming lights emerging.
As they emerge and spill around
Like oceans large and floating,
He flies, his mind’s yearning unbound,
Until all turns to nothing.
For where he lands there’s no domain
Nor eye that can discover,
And time itself struggles in vain
From bareness to recover.
It is but void, yet he does find
A thirst that draws him over,
A deep abyss resembling blind
The failure to remember.
“Of harsh and dark eternity
Relieve me, please, my Father,
And blessed thy name forever be
By all the world together.
Oh, ask, my Lord, for any charge,
But make my fate another,
For while your source puts lives at large
As well their deaths you gather.
My immortality recall,
Put out my gaze’s fire,
And give me in exchange of all
One hour of desire.
From chaos, Lord, I rose, and yearn
To be returned to chaos…
Out of eternal stillness born
I have a thirst for stillness.”
“Hyperion, you who from naught
Appeared, a world reclaiming,
Ask not for signs or marvels that
Have neither face nor naming.
You wish a man yourself to call,
Their likeness to acquire?
But were mankind to perish all
Others would still aspire.
They only build, yet cannot save,
Ideals all too shallow –
As waves are marching to their grave
More waves arise and follow.
They have but lucky stars to chase
While haunted by misfortunes,
We live outside of time and space
With no death in our fortunes.
Out of undying yesterday
Today’s living expire;
Were an old sun to fade away
New suns would burst afire.
Seemingly parted from the void
By void they are predated,
For all are born to be destroyed
And die to be created.
Still you, Hyperion, shall last
Even beyond your twilight…
Ask for my prime word from the past –
Shall it be wisdom’s insight?
Your voice at singing shall I ease
And render with emotions
That could charm mountains and their trees
And islands of the oceans?
Perhaps in deed you wish to show
Your righteousness and power?
I’d slice Earth’s kingdom row by row
For you to rule all over.
I’ll give you fleets lined side by side
And legions you could spread through
The lands afar and seas so wide,
But death I cannot grant you…
And dying for – who’s really worth?
Just turn around and travel
Back to that ever-drifting Earth
And see your fate unravel.”
* * *
His place, where he was meant to stay,
Hyperion regaining,
Like from the time of former day
His light again starts raining.
For twilight’s hour is about
And night will be her daughter;
The quiet moon is coming out
Trembling from under water
And fills up with her magic glow
The trails in forests hidden.
By lovely linden trees, below,
Two youngsters lay down even. .
“Upon your bosom let my head,
Beloved, to surrender
Beneath the glitter your eyes spread
So sweet no words can render;
With their enchantingly cold light
Stroll along my compassion,
And pour perpetual delight
Throughout my night of passion.
And always above me remain
To ease my aching sadness,
For you are my first loving pain
And my last dream of madness.”
Hyperion sees from above
The wonder on their faces;
He barely touched her neck with love
When she his waist embraces…
The silver flowers’ perfume spreads,
Their mist is gently snowing
Upon the two young children’s heads
With long and fair curls flowing.
Then she, from love in spirits high,
Raises her eyes and glimpses
The Evening Star. Yet only shy
Entrusts him with her wishes:
“Descend, my stellar prince so kind,
Along a soft ray gliding,
Enter the forest and my mind,
Light to my fate providing!”
He shivers like the other days
Above the hills and valleys,
While guiding over lonesome ways
Of moving water alleys;
But unlike then he does not fold
Into the sea from farther:
“What do you care, you earthly mould,
If it’s me or another?
Enclosed within your narrow ring
Good-fortuned lives you’re spending,
Whilst I to my own heavens cling,
Immortal and unbending.”
* * *
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