Evening Star

Once upon a time,
Like never before there was,
From grand and famous royal blood,
A most beautiful girl.

Only child to her parents,
Gracious and bright in every way,
Like the Virgin midst the saints
And the moon among the stars.

From beyond the shadow of night’s crown
She directs her step
To the window, at its nook
Where the Eveningstar awaits.

Gazing in the distance how on the sea
He rises and casts light,
Along the winding, moving ways,
Dark ships carrying forward.

Sees him today, sees him tomorrow,
Thus, her desire peaks;
While he, watching for weeks,
Holds a fondness for her.

***

Step by step after her trail
He slips into the room,
Weaving a smattering of flame,
From the cold spark of his loom.

And when she stretches ‘long her bed,
Ready to be set to rest,
He glides a touch along her hands,
He closes her sweet eyelashes.

And from the mirror on her shape,
A beam spreads, resplendent
On her large eyes, restless in sleep
On the back of her fair head.

She watches him with a smile,
He shudders in the mirror,
Because he followed deep into her dream
To catch her by the soul.

She speaks to him in dream,
Whimpering through a murmur:
“Oh, my sweet evening Lord,
Why aren’t you here? Come!

Descend to me, gentle Eveningstar,
Gliding down a beam,
Step into my house and in my mind,
And set my life aglimmer!”

Tremulous, he stays and listens,
Flickering with greater ardor,
And like lightning he strikes down,
Submerging into the sea;

Great circles roll and froth
In the space where he fell,
And from the deep and dark unknown
A handsome young man swells.

Slowly he crosses upon the threshold,
On the edge of windowsill,
Holding a staff in his hand,
One crowned in reeds.

He seemed a young Warlord,
With soft and golden hair,
A purple shroud bound by a knot
Draping his bare shoulders.

The umbral surface of his face
Is pale and white as wax –
A handsome dead with livened eyes
That sparkle in their sockets.

“With great toil I’ve come from out my way,
To follow to your call,
The bolted sky is my father
And the sea – my mother.

So that I could come to your room,
To see you from up near,
I’ve descended with all my light,
Gaining birth from waters.

Oh, come! My most precious treasure
And leave your world behind;
I am the Eveningstar up high,
And you will be my bride.

In the great halls of my coral Palace
You’ll carry on through eons,
And the world in the whole ocean
Will hear your word and heed it.”

“Oh, your beauty’s built from touch of dreams,
As only an angel would show,
But up the road that you’ve cast open
I shall never go;

A stranger in thought and manner,
You shine without life’s luster,
Because I’m living, and you are dead,
The cold of your gaze will freeze me.”

***

There passed a day, there passed three,
And again, at night, he comes -
The Eveningstar above her,
With his clear, translucent rays.

Found deep in sleep
She would remember
And start to miss her Lord of the waves;
In her heart, it stings.

“Descend to me, gentle Eveningstar,
Gliding down a beam,
Step into my house and in my mind,
And set my life aglimmer.”

As he hears her from above,
The pain makes him extinguish,
From the place he disappears,
The whole cosmos begins to roil.

Through the air deep burning embers
Stretch the width of the whole world,
And from the chaos of a valley,
A gallant shape takes its form;

On top of dark vines of his hair
His crown seems to be burning,
He came floating in truth,
Bathed in the Sun’s fires.

Beyond the folds of his black shroud,
Extends the marble of his arms,
He arrives sad and thoughtful,
Great pallor to his face.

But his large wondrous eyes shine
With a deep, chimeric glimmer,
Like two unsated passions
And swimming full of darkness.

“With great toil I’ve come from out my way,
Again to follow at your call,
And the Sun is my father,
While night is my mother;

Oh, come, with your straw-blonde hair,
To gather crowns of stars,
On my skies to appear
Greater than any of them.”

“Oh, your beauty’s built from touch of dreams,
As only a demon would show,
But down the road that you’ve cast open
I shall never go!

I tire of your cruel love
Desire plucking my heartstrings,
And my large and heavy eyes know pain,
Your gaze is burning through them.”

“Then how would you want me to descend?
Or don’t you understand,
That I’m immortal,
And you are of the aging kind?”

“I seek no special words,
Nor would I understand them –
Even though you speak in words I know,
I cannot understand you;

If truly you want for all our time
That I should love you dearly,
Descend fully to the earth,
Be mortal just like me.”

“You ask for me to forfeit my place
Amid the never-ending hours,
In exchange for a kiss,
And I want to prove how much I love you;

Yes, I’ll be born again from sin,
Come governed by new laws;
I’m bound by eternity,
And I wish to break the chains.”

And so he goes… so he goes,
For the love of a child,
Ripping from out his place in Heaven,
Disappearing for many days.

***

During this time, Jonathan,
Sly child full of laughter,
Who fills up cups of wine
For those gathered round the table,

A cupbearer that carries step by step
The trail of the Queen’s gown,
A bold, wandering bastard
And clever with his eyes,

With two bright burning cheeks,
Of feeling, come to blame it,
He sneaks around just like a thief,
Watching Johanna.

Just look how beautiful she’s grown,
And elegant to boot;
Look, Jonathan, now’s your chance
To try your best at luck.

He catches her gently as she comes past,
Quickly drawing her to a corner.
“What do you want, Jonathan?
Go off and mind your matters.”

“What do I want? I’d like for you to stop
Being so lost in thought all of the time,
Instead – to laugh and give me
One mouth, just one.”

“You know not what you ask,
Leave me, get out of here –
Oh, for the Eveningstar in the sky
I wait and long for.”

“If you don’t know, then I’ll show you
From step to step how to love,
Just don’t get so upset,
Let’s take it slowly.

Just as the hunter throws the net
To catch the birds before they go aflutter,
When I reach my arm towards you,
Put your own around me;

And your unwavering gaze,
Keep it locked to mine…
If I lift you under the arms,
By the heels push yourself high;

When my face bows closer to yours,
Keep your gaze up,
So that we may watch each other to our fill
And sweetly all our lives;

And so you’ll know in full
What love means,
After I bow to kiss you,
You kiss me back again.”

She listens to the boy
Amazed and distracted,
Embarrassed and coy,
She doesn’t want to and she wants to,

So she tells him in a whisper:
“I’ve known you since you were little,
Full of talk and simple words,
You’d fit well with me…

But an Eveningstar came down,
From the peace of oblivion,
Offering limitless horizon
To the lonely of the sea;

He’s bright with scintillating love
To chase away my pain,
But he’s heading higher up,
Where I can’t reach him.

He casts down sad with his cold rays
Appearing from a world that keeps us divided…
I will love him forever,
And forever we will be parted…

That’s why my days
Run empty and quiet,
But my nights stretch with a holy charm,
That I can’t understand anymore.”

“You are a child, that’s how it is…
Come with me into the world,
Let’s run until they lose track of us
And they’ll forget our names.

Because together, we’ll be tame,
We’ll be glad and safe,
We’ll forget about our parents
And dreams of Eveningstars.”

***

Started, the Eveningstar. Growing
In the sky his wings,
And streams of thousand years pass by
In just as many moments.

Below, a depth of stars
Above, Haven’s stars begem –
He seemed a never-ending bolt
Wandering through them.

And from the chaos of the vale,
Surrounding him completely,
He could see like the first day
How lights come into spring.

They river-flow around him
Found swimming through all seas…
He flies, borne by his yearning,
Until everything disappears, everything.

For there’s no border where he arrives,
Nor eyes to know it,
And time’s trying in vain
To be born from nothing.

Nothing exists and yet there is
A thirst that sips him in,
It’s a similar depth
To forgetfulness’ oblivion.

“From the dark, heavy weight of eternity
Father, release me,
And forever praised may you be
Along the length of the whole world’s ladder.

Oh, ask of me what you will
To grant another fate,
Because you’re the wellspring of life
And deliverer of ending.

Reclaim my immortal core
And the fire in my gaze
And for all give me instead
An hour of love.

From chaos, Lord, I rose
And I would return to chaos…
And from rest I’ve been reborn
I crave to rest.”

“Hyperion, who rises
From beyond with a whole world,
Don’t ask for signs and miracles
That know not name nor form.

You wish to count yourself a man,
To be in same with them?
Should all men disappear,
They would be born again as men.

Only the wind can bear of these
Impossible ideals –
When waves crash upon their graves
They swell again to waves.

They have only lucky stars
And woven trials through their fates,
We have nor time nor place,
And we don’t know of death.

From the eternal yesterday
There lives today what dies,
Should a Sun extinguish in the sky
It would light back up with sunlight.

Seeming endlessly to rise,
Death follows close in his footsteps,
Because all are born so they will die
And die to be reborn.

But you, Hyperion, you remain,
No matter where you fade…
Ask for my word first –
Should I grant you my wisdom?

You wish for me to give that mouth a voice,
So after it’s gone singing
The mountains to take with forests
And the islands into the sea?

You wish, perhaps, in deed to prove
Fortitude and justice?
I would grant to you the Earth in pieces
So you may shape it empire.

I would grant you oar by oar,
Leagues of soldiers to explore
The land at range and sea at large,
But death I cannot give you…

And for whom do you wish to die?
Turn back, see for yourself
What’s waiting for you
On that fading earth.

***

To his designated place above
Hyperion returns,
And, just like the bright of yesterday,
He pours forth his light.

Because it’s late evening
And the night is close to falling;
In grace the moon lifts to the sky,
Vision shuddering in water

And she begins to cast her gaze
Illuminating roads and groves.
Under the long lining of linden,
Two youths sit all alone.

“Oh, my love,
Let my head rest on your breast
Under the clear sight of your gaze,
And its unfathomable sweetness;

Traverse the space of my thoughts,
Under cold light’s evening charm,
Pour an age’s worth of soothing
On my night of passion.

And always above me remain
Keeping my pain at bay,
Because you’re my first love
And the last one of my dreams.”

Hyperion watches from above
The wonder on their faces;
Just a hand he’d placed on her neck
And she embraced him…

The scent of silver flowers in the air
Petals dropping, a tender rain,
On the crowns of two children
With long blonde locks of hair.

She, drunk on love,
Raises her eyes. Sees
The Eveningstar. And steadily
She entrusts her wish:

“Descend to me, gentle Eveningstar,
Gliding down a beam,
Step into my glade and in my thoughts,
And set my luck aglimmer!”

He trembles just like on the first
Through forests and along the hills
Guiding loneliness
Across the shifting waves;

But he does not fall like in the past
To depth of sea from up his peak:
“What do you care, bearing of clay,
Should it be me or someone else?

Living in your narrow circle
Luck rules over you,
But I in my world feel
Cold and immortal.”