The Reverie of Blackness

[ Ego, Orpheus, captivos ne morerentur musica mea servare non potui. ]

The evening conspired in hushed voices with the grave trees that inhabited the valley of dry bones. It was but in this hallowed terrain that the paradox of mortality assumed a haunted landscape, unto where all prisoners must discover their final call, broken in the realization that they have to disappear into the dark earth. The black river seemed to touch the soul in desolate darkness, Sandhya grieving for all the sons who were put to death by Orpheus.  

It was here, in this habitation of dusty skulls, that the poet sought his acquaintance with Grief, the woman who roamed amidst the bones, illumined solely by a candle held at a distance from her heart. None were allowed to survive in this cemetery of divine failure, for the sons who could not be saved by fate, fated as they were.

Shanaya was intent on painting a red Chrysanthemum on the forehead of a pale green skull that she found strewn amidst the stones, hoping that Orpheus would see it and think of her. She had asked the owls to carry the memento to him, wishing to share his sorrow for the fallen, who were once born of his relationship with Sandhya. She seemed to have inhabited this skull like a black snake, patiently waiting for Orpheus to come nearer.

The flute of Orpheus was taking strange serpentine turns that glistened on the snake’s body like silver jewelry on a dark woman. Orpheus had calmly allowed the revengeful cobra to coil around his poetic hands, lulled with a kiss on her forehead.

As he played his flute in unforeseen melancholy, he could hear the cry of Grief, lamenting the failure to save the sons, who once wandered into the forest in search of treasures of the underworld. The snake whispered, “Miseria, Miseria, Miseria”, as Shanaya could feel a silent teardrop touching her lips, reminding her of a kiss that was yet to be given.  

Thus was the distant sorrow of the black river, fated to follow Orpheus, yet denying him in a tearful reverie.

Omnibus ipse pallet deus, dum mortis lamenta mihi scribis

Aether tremit oblivione, dum musica tam tristis sanguineis cordibus torquet

Sanctus miseros erudit, de mortis venustate

O captivi, vos colligite, mementote mori.

देवोऽपि पाण्डुतां याति त्वयि मृत्युविलापकान् मयि लिखति।

कम्पते शून्यतयाऽऽकाशः, खिन्नं सङ्गीतं रक्तमयेभ्यो हृदयेभ्यः क्लेशं ददाति॥

साधुर्दीनान् शिक्षयति, मृत्योः सौन्दर्यविषये।

भो बन्दिनः, यूयं सङ्गच्छध्वं, स्मरत यन्मरणं निश्चितम्॥

* Latin and Sanskrit are written with the help of AI.