Why, he often wonders, trying to explain
A sense of inadequacy
That continuously plagues him,
Did the white-robed Fates
Weaved a strange tale
Of unfulfilled promises
And made him toil away
In a heartless land
Ruled by hedonistic revellers
And ever-whirring machines,
Leaving him stranded,
A misplaced medieval soul
Bent on finding meaning
Within an often unimaginative
Role-playing game
By trying to imbue it with
Some purpose long-lost
And only to be rediscovered by
An act of chivalry and sworn fealty
To a just king and damsel and muse,
When all around him the soldiers of fortune
Reap the harvests of self-indulgence
And base delights
With wanton disregard for
Stale old notions of honour
And higher questing?
Is it the pinnacle of folly to invest
The hard-working enterpriser
Paying his earthly wages and
Building empires for his sons and daughters
With the mantle of a just king,
And revere the apple-pie baking woman
Donning a cheap stamped-linen apron
As damsel and muse
For whose sake he would gladly
Risk life and limb?
If indeed it is folly
Then he wishes nothing more than
To carry on a grey,
Spent knight, out of time,
Out of place, likely to be completely smitten
Any day now, only let his ultimate nemesis
Appear in the guise of a full-fledged
Fire-breathing dragon armoured
With impenetrable scales
Or a towering black knight,
Unyielding and devoid of compassion,
And not as a mundane modern caricature
Of the old foes:
A cancer giving bastard-demon
Or an faceless succubus stealing down
Under the skin
Bringing some auto-immune disease,
For no instrument of death
Lesser than a searing breath of beastly fire
Or mighty blow from a goblin-forged sword
Will ever befit a true knight.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
The 'apple-pie baking woman, ' a 'cancer giving bastard-demon...' There's a humorous directness to some of your references which I find very entertaining. At the same time I detect a broad stroke imagination that is at liberty to illuminate itself through your colorful poet's pen. Looking forward to reading more of you in the future.
You're very welcome, Rod. And the funny part I detected was, of course, in spite of your bleak theme c:
Very kind of you, and l'm sure glad you liked this one. Funny how you felt there was a humorous vein in this: I thought it was pretty bleak!