Love Song of Night and Day

J

Jigglypuff

Guest
You know, that cute poem that was featured in bits and pieces on Mirage and Visions cards. Well, does anyone know of a site that has the full text or happens to have it saved on their computer and can tell me the full text? Thanks!

(- Steve -)
 
T

train

Guest
Love Song of Night and Day
Composed for Mirage by Jenny Scott

He: Wrap yourself in your best bright clothes, your red and purple
scarves of silk. Run with me to the festival, where we will
dance until sunrise. The dwarves will beat their funny drums
of zebra skins and hollowed trees, while stiltwalkers perform,
and the musician blows his bamboo flute.

She: And late in the night, the poets and storytellers entertain,
delight us with their dancing words, as we listen, clapping by
the fire. Enchant me with your tale-telling. Tell about Tree,
Grass, River, and Wind. Tell why Truth must fight with
falsehood, and why Truth will always win.

He: I will tell my father's stories: how the giant mantis fooled
Death by holding still as a felled tree; how the elephants
trampled the leopard cub, and its father, though he knew,
killed nine goats instead; how pirates gambled with a djinn
and lost the thing more dear than gold.

She: Tonight we'll eat a farewell feast. Cold corn porridge is not
enough. Let's peel papayas, pineapples, and mangoes, drink
coconut milk, and bake bananas. We'll dine on crocodiles, wild
birds, and turtles, perhaps a hippopotamus--if only you can
catch it first.

He: I'll build a palace made of stone. Two hippo-headed guards
will serve, and tigers carry in your meals. I'll capture
flying zebras for your steeds, and fill the stable with every
kind of unicorn. Butterflies and salamanders will decorate
your garden.

She: I'll strand long strings of beads for you, blue, the color
only kings may wear. I'll carve a soapstone lioness, a wooden
box to lock it in, girded with sapphire amulets, ostrich
feathers, ivory. These things will protect you while I'm gone,
remind you of my love for you.

He: Your voice resounds like a songbird's, every word is a sweet,
soft song. When you run you're graceful and swift, sleek as a
powerful panther. Mysterious chameleon, you're a thousand
women at once, sharp and strong as a lioness, yet gentle as a
striped gazelle.

She: On this our last day together, let us walk across the
grasslands. Hold my hand and let's walk slowly, seeing
everything as children. Let's walk on the Daraja Plains, where
leopards hang from trees, dosing, tasseled tails swaying in
the shade, near villages of tree-dwelling elves.

He: Glorious, to walk again across the savannah with my beloved.
A lion walks commandingly, a general among his troops, camped
the night before a battle. A snake, colorful and coiled, loops
around his bough, mischievous, hanging over the village path.

She: We'll find termites in their nests, hard tall towers above the
plains, and point-eared cats, taking their turns, guarding
their many entrances. We'll find the basket-nests of birds
hanging from the acacia tree. Rhinoceroses and dragons for
once will let us walk in peace.

He: When lightning tears the sky's dark cloak and heaven's bird
beats the water on the muddy plains with its big wings,
termites and frogs escape their homes toward the lamps in the
nearest village. Spiders dry themselves indoors, the spotted
lizards that never fall from ceilings suddenly appear.

She: In the forest, fires light the sky as the black clouds unfold
their weight. The black-and-white sacred monkey holds her
children to her, and waits. Love, like lightning hits
suddenly. It sparks the heart with blows of light, its fire
extending, bends, expands, beats and breaks your hiding places.

---------------------------------------

She: Remember when we were children, herding the sheep together,
leading them over the grassy hills with long sticks. Your
silly songs made me laugh, and in the evening, you'd enchant
me with your stories, lying on your back beside me. Even then
my heart was yours.

He: I remember your sacred rites. You were so funny, so grown up,
so stiff and serious, all arms and elbows. You went in a girl,
but you returned a warrior. You marched back with the others--
your hair was cut, your eye tattooed with the red triangle of
war.

She: Tomorrow I must go, my love. I will tattoo my head with braids.
My shield will bear a shining sun so you will always be with
me. Inlaid with gold, it will shine like glowing embers. I
will return with lizard skins for your sandals. Paint your
eyes black and wait for me.

He: I am the sun, you are the moon. Wherever you lead I will go,
following across the wide sky, as long as I live and you love.
Sun follows Moon until she tires, then carries her until she's
strong and runs ahead of him again. I'll carry you, too, my
beloved.

She: My love, we are not Sun and Moon. Instead we are like day and
night. The old ones say Day is a woman, who works only while
it is light. She herds her goats and catches fish, fills her
fields with golden corn, shows her children what is just and
protects them from the cobra.

Day loves Night, who works in darkness, walking through
heaven's milky sky collecting stars with his quick arms,
piling them into a basket like a child collecting lizards and
piling them into her pot until the pot overflows with
lizards, 'til the basket overflows with light.

Night wears a black cloak lined with fire, studded inside with
gleaming stars. At dawn and dusk he spies his love. Across the
rolling hills of sky, they glimpse each other--so briefly.
They throw each other kisses, cry. Their tears spill over
Jamuraa. Mixed with blood, they wash everything red.

But once, with a magician's help, Time was stopped and Day
stood still. Night spread over Jamuraa, wrapped Day in his
dark cloak and held her. In their miraculous embrace, the two
became as One. Until pulled from Day's arms, Night sank,
commanded by the western horizon that always beckons him to
come.

He: I won't give up hope, my love.

She: Our love is like the river in the summer season of long rains:
For a little while it spilled its banks, flooding the crops in
the fields. But soon it will evaporate with the dry heat. Like
Day from Night, I'll live my life apart from you, just
glimpsing you across the sky, because you cannot change, my
dear, and nor can I.

--Jenny Scott
 
B

Bob

Guest
What about the poem on the Angels of Duty, Grace, Law, etc. in Saga, Legacy, and Nemesis?
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Thanks train! Sorry that I forgot to post this earlier...:(

(- Steve -)
 
O

olwen

Guest
Thanks. I've always wanted to see the entire poem. I really like it.
--
Olwen
 
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