sw00369jt-b1.e4

Justan Tamarind: Book I       e4                             



Be patient, fiery prince, our wishes shall
Be act."  Now Luborga (son of Borgadal
The Appellator: so-called because he chose
The name of Moiland's present king when Zal
And Refnoe wore the splendid crowns of those
From holy Tamarind descended), filled
With flint enough to dazzle the sun, posed
Before the multitude, will surely spill
And spark to ash; but the Host-God builds

A cloud from Mezdras's voice to cover him:
"Proud prince, your sight is not one-eighth as dim
As mine, yet I should not be bold as you
Are bold; our king has come.  You think the rim
Needs watching? that perhaps it will rust through,
Or lose its hold on warping boards and snap?
That our culture will evaporate like dew
And rise to wisps in the senseless air, or slap
To earth at once, sink through a dusty gap?

You have attended the councils, have spoken,
Have listened; have not let the keg be broken
By the sledging tongues of knowledge-fearers
And fevered insularians.  What token
Of your wisdom, then, is this, to make us hearers
Still?  How many years I've lived, and would,
Yet would live.  Each moment I press nearer
To this land.  It does not matter that I have stood
For thirty springs in darkness:  I have stood.

And so, prized prince, so have you stood, enough,
Enough.  A wise man has no need to puff
Before the world as if he would inflate
His name thereby, as if such gaseous stuffs
Which at those times his mouth and head can mate
Would not fill as well a polyethylene
Balloon, if bottled for that purpose.  State
Your griefs within.  Do not jar a scene
Among the people.  Do not stand between

Your king (on his last day) and these masses
Who, sadly, only know what passes
Toward their governance after Justan speaks
To them."  "Yes, DeVry, my chum, how crass is
A crow, anyhow?  Or is it you that creaks,
That is a sun-warped barrel? or has the shell
Of his birth still drooping from his top?  Weeks,
Interminable weeks, we have heard you spell,
Phrase, and paragraph your sweet lac et mel





Brian A. J. Salchert