İlahe - Goddess Poem by Berna Lovrek

He made me a goddess.
Up there on a throne he placed me.
He worshipped me, he laid offerings at my feet,
garlands of flowers.
He sang İlahî to me, said I was his one and all.

He idealized me, he idolized me.
He looked up to me as one that gives all:
wealth, bounty, life and care.
I had no choice - the unselfish, self-sacrifing Madonna...

Once someone asked me:
Being made a goddess - ain't that what every woman would want? !
A dream come true...

I'm so lonely up there on that throne.

Now the times have changed:
the rain has come, the winds are blowing, the thunder rumbles,
the world is dark.

Still I'm made a goddess.
Still I'm up there on my throne.

The vision has changed.
Now I am the one to be feared, a cruel mistress,
provided with unlimited powers to destroy, to wreck someones life.
A goddess cold as stone, to be tricked, to be soothed by lies.
A goddess that has to be destroyed to make darkness and storm vanish,
to make spring come back.

Once someone asked me:
Being made a goddess - ain't that what every woman would want? !
A dream come true...

I'm so lonely up there on that throne.

I never wished for the offerings, the worshipping,
the incense, the sacrifices and the fear...
All I wanted was to make the delusion vanish,
to be allowed to be flesh and blood,
to be loved and to be allowed to step down from that throne -
to the world of humans.

All I wanted was for him to stretch out his hand to me,
to join the mere mortals, to be welcomed as one of them,
as one of his kin,
to dance, to laugh, to live a human life - like all of them.

Once someone asked me:
Ain't that what every woman would want? !