The River’s Witness

[ Ego Orpheus sum, is ex quo nigrum flumen mortalium orbem creavit. ]

Shanaya wanted to acquaint herself with the dusk, as she sensed that the black river was not very distant from her. It was as if she, the black river, knew her from her very absolution, a memory that they had denied quite unknowingly. 

As the evening descended, she would mutter disparate forebodings to the blackness, trying to paint the dusk as a woman who did not want Orpheus to listen. She was inconsolable even at the thought of never coming close to hold Orpheus, while she could see him sitting by the river, as if he was smiling at her.

Shanaya wanted to let the river know that she was a witness to Orpheus from the very beginning of memories, like the serene light of the early ocean, even when the sons of man were not brought forth. On thinking this, she suddenly realized that the river was speaking to her, grieving for all the sons she had lost to the forbidden forest, their mortal remains forever entombed in the valley of dry bones. 

She could see her hopelessly wandering within the cruel depths of the underworld, her hair over her bosom, seeking the last sign of hope from the prisoners, so that she could redeem even one of them from the tyranny of Orpheus.

She wanted to know if her revenge mattered to Orpheus, and she could see him giving his bloodied hands to the black river, the pale shadow of the moon forbidding her to come near this scene of death. Shanaya could hear the river cursing at the fatherly forest, who was standing very still, yet carrying her tears so that the red flowers could be born by the shadows.

Shanaya could feel that the river was tearfully seeking her to share her sorrow, calling her name from a distance, “Usha, Usha, Usha.” She wanted to cry, yet she did not, for she could not come to terms with the grief. 

Thus was the lament of the black river in the endless darkness, as Shanaya realized that she was speaking to Sandhya, the sister who knew her from her earliest memories.

Infiniti et arboreta se non para solacia tristibus  

Mihi crines celant mortuos, se non attenuari desiderant

Insigni oblito te, ergo separaris somniis arcanis

Ascendit abstinentia, ut emancipata mihi absolvat cruces.

अनन्तानि च काननानि शोकार्तेभ्यो न सुखं ददति।

मम केशा मृतं गृह्णन्ति, ते तनुत्त्वं न वाञ्छन्ति॥

त्वयि विस्मृते, त्वं रहस्यमयेभ्यः स्वप्नेभ्यः वियुक्तो भवसि।

संयमः उदेति, यथा स मुक्तो भूत्वा मम कष्टानि निवारयेत्॥

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