She is a creature of holy desire.
Desire itself created her from flowers
of feelings, gestures of flesh, breathings
of soul. Her mind is always a polished
beacon lighting her way to the one most
in need. Always a dutiful and loving daughter
she accepted her father's protection
from venal men swarming everywhere and everywhere
leaving the wreckage of lives behind their hastening
steps. But now her father uderstood she had become
his protector: She surrendered to the grasp of
Sultan Schahriar with the wisdom of an angel
who uses the light to redeem the darkness.
And alone in the night the Sultan puzzles over
latest story.
I envy this Scheherazade. It's a beautiful portrayal of a princess who deserves to be called a princess not because she was born in a royal family but because of her invincible spirit. I really loved reading this fable.
I do insist, there is not any need or obvious purpose to cut the verse without having a full meaning in itself.//flowers/of feelings, //breathings/ of soul, polished/beacon, most/in need, .....In greek epics or lyric poetry ther is very seldom such a cut and mostly just to show that somethinf is really cut...
I don't really bother over rhyme and metre when the subject matter asks for none.. This should not have been a rhymed poem because the life talked about is the one of a human being who had to deal with in 'fragmentations' - if I say so.. Neither a princess or just a normal lass nor a queen or mere storyteller. She is someone (maybe even SOMETHING) of greater virtue. I really loved the poem Daniel.. This one and the one on the sultan shows us something very important, in what Eliot would have called, IN A HANDFUL OF DUST.. We often wonder what about the life of the sultan, who is cruel and bloodthirsty, but lo! He is a human being living under a looming shadow of meaninglessness.. What about Scheherazade ? ? She is hopeless and in peril... But maybe not.. Maybe her fear lived for only a few of the thousands and one nights... Telling a story to keep herself alive.. For how long will it keep her 'will to live' alive? ? Would there be no time when she will feel like Sissiphus? ? Maybe she would.. Maybe her stories too will stop to make sense to her... After all, as said by Beckett in WAITING FOR GODOT - EVERYONE SUBSIDES... The acts that begin with zeal lasts not forever! ! Thank you Daniel.. Maybe a few years from now, I will read these two poems again, and will understand something more - THEY WILL SHOW ME MORE THAN MY SHADOW IN THE MORNING OR AT NOON - THEY WILL SHOW ME LIFE IN A HANDFUL OF DUST - FULL OF SOUND AND FURY AND YET SIGNIFYING NOTHING...
Your scholium Souren proves my estimation about the future waiting for you...
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
The scherezade's legend interested me since teenage and you did an awesome job retelling it in this fabulous poem itch some twists. Kudos.