The Forest – Canto II
1.
"There are some fundamentals
of this strange existence we call life,
which simply aim at not exacerbating it
but on the contrary, at making it more easy
and agreeable, endurable and nice.
The heart of these recommendations
concern of course the strange phenomenon
on such a universal bearing on us all,
that everything depends on it.
Love is of course to everlastingly be cherished,
cultivated, practised and disseminated
but with care and always kindly.
It must not be enforced,
for then the only consequence is backfire
which can lead to anything destructive.
You shall hear our story,
which is all about the consequence of love,
for good, for worse, but never without consequences."
2.
Thus spoke the fairest man that I had ever seen,
all clad in white,
with golden hair down to his waist,
not even twenty, but still with such a wisdom
as if he had been an old soul ever
with experience enough to teach all mankind
how to make it better and get more aware and wiser.
3.
"He was a kind of rover of the sea,
no roots ashore although he was a doctor,
shunning his own kind and living only for the aliens,
innocents of wilderness, the undestroyed of nature,
preferrably of some romantic pure environment
of virgin beauty, ocean shores and mountains,
like Tahiti and the southeast Asian archipelago,
but most of it had already been spoilt and ruined.
There were still, however, some few archipelagos
unknown to white men's greed,
and one of them was only known to him.
It was the seven islands of Jagánde
far away beyond all maps and charts of knowledge,
and it was his habit once a year to go there
selling trinkets and some medicines
for pearls and costly handicrafts and jewels,
which he then would sell on the Calcutta market
at some modest profit. Thus his only use of his monopoly
was to preserve it, keep it virgin and unknown
and act as its protector, while he modestly enjoyed
the local fame of being venerated as the only white man
known at all to all the natives of Jagánde.
But one year he brought a fellow with him.
4.
He was of some dark romantic hue,
a sailor born and famous for his legendary seamanship,
as he once as a youngster actually had managed quite alone
to bring a ship without its captain through a storm.
He was from Venice but, like doctor Magnus,
kept roaming about around the world
with no safe haven to find peace and rest in.
They had met at some bazaar in Bombay or Calcutta,
and at that time doctor Magnus needed some spare hands,
the storms, typhoons and hurricanes around the Indian Ocean
growing worse, so that he felt the need to play it safer,
going out to remote islands beyond any chart
without a single person knowing where he was.
As you grow older, loneliness becomes an alien company,
while instead the urge of sharing grows more imminent.
Quite simply, doctor Magnus asked his newfound mate:
"Would there be any interest on your part
to come along with me to unknown South Pacific isles
which no one in geography has ever heard of?"
The Venetian sailor asked immediately:
"That is exactly what I need.
Do such islands still exist?"
And he was on.
5.
They reached the islands early after dawn
one morning, and people gathered everywhere
along the shores to greet them
with a wondrous song of welcome,
which they sang in parts
in clear and stupefying harmony,
preparing garlands to receive the yearly visitor;
but the activity and eagerness along the shores
among the steadily increasing groups of curious people
were enhanced when it was noticed,
that their loved friend the doctor
this year had brought with him a companion,
who looked interesting indeed.
6.
As they were fetched ashore by outriggers,
the king himself embarking on his sumptuous royal boat
to offer them a very special welcome,
as they almost were submerged in garish garlands,
they were lifted up on shoulders of the natives on the shore
to then be promptly carried to the king's house
for a most pacific banquet,
while the singing and the celebrating went on enthusiastically.
After all, the best friend of the natives
paid them annually one visit only,
and since now they were two persons,
that must needs have double celebrations.
7.
As they sat down to their royal banquet in the king's house,
there was no end to the affluence
of the most exquisite delicious cooking of the south seas.
Present at the presentation of the king's whole family
with wives and sons and other relatives
whose status and relationships were out of definition,
there was also the king's one and only daughter,
a fair maid of perfect and exotic beauty
in her best age and not yet in full bloom.
As the sailor's eyes discovered her,
she went under his skin immediately and stayed there,
and he could not concentrate on any matter else
all through the overwhelming dinner.
Doctor Magnus saw that something dangerous had happened
and gave him a friendly warning:
"Mind you, as the only daughter of the king,
she is everything to him, and he will never part with her.
There have been suitors, lots of them,
but no one will get through without some testing.
If the test is failed, the suitor's life is lost."
Appalled but not deterred, the sailor asked:
"Have many suitors thus been executed?"
"They can not be counted," was the somber answer.
8.
Naturally, the more the sailor's interest grew
in that most fascinatingly attractive princess
with her dark brown olive-reddish hair
in most intoxicating generosity and richness
flowing far beneath her bottom,
especially as she did not remain for dinner
but departed suddenly as soon as she had seen him.
That could only mean one thing,
and he was well aware of it.
9.
He had no interest, therefore, in remaining
bored and stuffed by far too many dishes
at the royal table, but as soon as it was possible
for him to break and move out from the culinary slavery,
he made polite excuses, indicating natural demands
and went out for a vital breath of fresher air.
He instantly made out his bearings
and soon found himself a total stranger
in the middle of a capital but alien village,
but was nonetheless led by a higher instinct
to pursue a very special course,
like by a higher scent and sense,
and suddenly stopped short at a most touching scene.
There she was, the royal princess,
in a very humble cottage, helping a sick family in need,
where obviously the mother lying on a bed was dying.
The dark sailor with his most romantic aspects
of a wild and dashing stranger from beyond the seas
knew perfectly how to control himself
and therefore did not interfere with anything
but stood apart in reverence and kept his silence
absolutely still, while the young princess worked
and did her best to soothe the dying mother's pains
and ease the last remaining moments of her life,
while her two children, crying silently,
kept equally perfectly still in mute despair.
The moment came when the afflicted patient
breathed her last. The princess had to finally give up
and tenderly embraced the orphaned children,
giving them the comfort of her sharing with them all their tears.
She then looked up at the observant and respectful sailor
as if she had known him all her life
and gave him unmistakably a sign
for him to help her cleaning up
and managing the ruined household.
He did never hesitate but did his best,
and so they worked together,
comforting the children, talking with the relatives,
preparing for the funeral and obsequies,
until she could breathe out as she had done her work.
She rose, the children were now taken care of by the relatives,
she moved towards the entrance, where the stranger stood
quite still, as he had done the whole time as if in devotion,
gave him but one glance, – and ran for it.
She ran away like an escaping deer,
and he took up the hunt –
that glance had told him far too much
not to be challenged.
10.
She ran like a stag, and she was a good runner,
so for all his excellent condition,
he had to put some effort into it,
while she remained far ahead of him
and he could but keep pace with her.
She ran all the way out of the village
and did not at all seem tired of it
as she finally made suddenly a halt
and turned around to meet her lover,
laughing heartily for a most natural welcome.
He could not believe his eyes.
There she was, the fairest princess in this world,
waiting for him, well outside the village,
in perfect safety and complete intimacy
with the most warm welcoming laughing welcome.
Checked, he hesitated for a moment,
but for just a fragment of a moment,
before he accepted her opening to him
and made the final and irrevocable advance.
11.
When they both were tired out
and rested in the shadows of the hiding palms,
she gently stroke his rich dark longish hair
that matched her own most perfectly
in shades of darkness with some dark blond streaks,
as his was growing also, as all hairs will ever do,
although not as far beneath his shoulders as did hers,
and told him intimately warm with tenderness:
"My father will cut off your head for this."
He read her thoughts and got her warning message,
as the worried tender eyes were not to be mistaken,
and he thought: "I would not have loved you for less."
They rested still, remaining in each others arms and harmony,
enjoying the relaxing peace and quiet after the exertion,
while they mixed each other's hairs
as a silent promise never to let them unmix again,
while he delighted in completely burying himself in hers,
unwilling ever to get out of her again.
At last she rose, as she felt ready,
and he knew the moment was at hand
of truth and confrontation.
12.
They walked together through the village
hand in hand, as natural as any lovers,
while the villagers who saw them did not mind at all
but took them as they were,
accepting them completely without reservations,
noticing at once that they were natural as lovers
and a most becoming pair at that:
they hardly could have matched each other better.
One or other aged villager perhaps looked down
with some foreboding afterthought,
like, "I sincerely hope this suitor finally will be the one,"
too well aware of the ordeal that was awaiting him.
(to be continued.)
Poetry by Christian Lanciai
Read 426 times
Written on 2008-09-15 at 09:58
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