[Ego, Orpheus, in caelesti corpore meo infernum ferre debeo, dum
dilecta mea ad paradisum redibit.]
The mélange of light and darkness was assuming
strange shapes in the mysterious forest, shapes that were forming in the
feminine, resurrected by his music. The flute seemed to awaken the deathly amnesia
of the Goddesses, who once descended to hell, cursed by the reluctance of love
that they had denied. Shanaya could scarcely stay away from her mirror, as she saw
the presence of other women in the underworld, who wished to speak to her, so
that they might return to heaven once again.
She could feel the smile of prudence and the demure
of wisdom in the same breath, women who were haunted by the memory of a sad
dawn, the last dream they had dreamed before the mortals ceased to remember them. They were not imprisoned, yet forgotten in an ancient slumber that had
come over the realms, like a disparate mist enveloping the lake of tears.
She doubted if Orpheus would remember her,
despite knowing she had not yet revealed herself to him. Although she still
felt lonely, the thought of being with him one day assured her. Orpheus seemed lost
in an unearthly meditation, being with her and without her at the same time,
like a northern star that seemed so near, yet was far from this world.
He was untouched by his own mystic, yet his
unceasing music would ebb and flow like the rainy clouds floating by the moon.
Shanaya wanted to implore the black river not to hurt her lover, but she also wished
to know if Orpheus desired to return the curse to Sandhya.
She was askance if he ever felt the grief that
pervaded the forest like a heavy shadow. On thinking this, she suddenly realized
that grief herself was a woman, someone who sought her redemption from the malady
of prisoners.
The swans were floating very still on the lake
of tears, as if even a flutter of their pale wings would disrupt the solemn
meditation of the forbidden forest. As she missed her lover, Shanaya was
silently crying with the swans, their tears sinking like precious pearls to the
bottom of the lake.
In quiet desperation, she reached within the halo
with her trembling fingertips, lightly holding a pearl that carried the weight
of her questions to him. She wanted the swans to fly her pearl to Orpheus, so
that he might let it disappear in the black river, flowing like a foreboding
vision, inseparable from the night.
The swans flew by the sky like whispering apparitions,
the pale blue of their hearts reflecting the deathless trials of the moon. Thus
was the answer of Orpheus when he received the pearl that the swans left in the
hollow of his heart.
Tristis est luna mihi, sed arcana
sententia solemniter descendit
Talis discedit immerso umbrae
corpore argenteus cygnus
Noster tristis recedit reditus
inferni mihi sancto silentio
Tu redis ad paradisum, ergo ego
retineor in inferno aeternae mortis corpore
Mea soliloquia lunaria disparent,
sed te privat serpentis imperium
मम कृते चन्द्रः करुणः अस्ति, किन्तु एको
रहस्यभावः गाम्भीर्येण अवतरति।
छायानिमग्ने वपुषि तथा गच्छति राजतश्चक्रवाकः।
अस्माकं दुःखदः पातालप्रत्यावर्तनं पवित्रमौनमयेन मयि विरमति।
त्वं स्वर्गं प्रतिगच्छसि, अतः अहं
नित्यमृत्युपाताले शरीरेण बद्धोऽस्मि।
मम चान्द्रविलापाः नश्यन्ति, परन्तु
सर्पस्याधिपत्यं त्वां वञ्चयति॥
