Poem: "The Beauties of the Desert"
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cottoncandy_bingo fest.
The following poem belongs to my oldest settings, a desert called the Whispering Sands. It's on the southern continent in my main fantasy world, Hallelaine. The inhabitants include a mix of humans and elves, and I have quite a bit of the local language Seshaa worked out. There's a narrow band of greenery along the coast, quite a lot of rocky and sandy barrens in the lowlands, some splendid canyons and hills toward the north, and then the high desert with its open dunes inland. The decadent cities lie along the coast and a few other places; there are important tribes like Waterjewel in the north and the Tazha in the south, plus quite a lot of different bandit tribes. It makes for interesting times.
Fandom: Original (Whispering Sands)
Prompt: Desert
Medium: Poetry
Summary: The desert holds many different kinds of beauty, each with its own name.
Content Notes: This poem features words from a constructed language.
The Beauties of the Desert
A rock that plays with the wind is kayaluun,
a singing stone, carved by blown sand
so that it has holes to make music.
Only the stirring air gives voice to its beauty.
Some things are hidden, like kaysha,
the stone's secret -- a gem in its matrix,
or the flashing spark released from struck flint,
lovely only once revealed by the right circumstance.
Then there is value which is definite but difficult to see:
parrl, no more than a glint or a gleam, such as
a diamond in the rough or a gold coin in a dungheap,
that many would miss but a discerning person would seize.
Sorrow too has its beauty in aajir, an excellent sadness,
for the desert is barren yet breathtaking in its magnificence;
if it were more fecund and easy on its people,
it would lose this austere splendor.
This place has a great and terrible beauty, guzelek,
that which is alluring but also dangerous,
the harsh edges of the canyons,
and the cutting colors of the whispering sand.
Loneliness too is attractive, a golden chain
threaded through a wanderer's wayard heart:
daira doshye, a loop of nebula in an empty sky
so utterly beyond any city's shining reach.
Elven eyes have their own awareness of bright heat,
turning as they depart to gaze upon vaala vân,
the charm of a camp seen from a distance at night,
with fires glowing between the tall dim tents.
Come into the oasis and there is dalagi,
dappled patches of dark and light, cool and warm,
wavering and shimmering like sunbeams through water
casting shadows upon the bottom of a pool.
At twilight, dantêlerey develops, the lace-heat
of patterns amongst the rocks and sand, all crisp edges
with dots and arcs of different temperatures
defining a fall of dusk and glitter.
Go out in the desert, go alone, walk from your fire
and find kâvalan, the solitary beauty of
one warm, bright thing against a cool, dark background
as rare and precious as an oasis itself.
cottoncandy_bingo fest.The following poem belongs to my oldest settings, a desert called the Whispering Sands. It's on the southern continent in my main fantasy world, Hallelaine. The inhabitants include a mix of humans and elves, and I have quite a bit of the local language Seshaa worked out. There's a narrow band of greenery along the coast, quite a lot of rocky and sandy barrens in the lowlands, some splendid canyons and hills toward the north, and then the high desert with its open dunes inland. The decadent cities lie along the coast and a few other places; there are important tribes like Waterjewel in the north and the Tazha in the south, plus quite a lot of different bandit tribes. It makes for interesting times.
Fandom: Original (Whispering Sands)
Prompt: Desert
Medium: Poetry
Summary: The desert holds many different kinds of beauty, each with its own name.
Content Notes: This poem features words from a constructed language.
The Beauties of the Desert
A rock that plays with the wind is kayaluun,
a singing stone, carved by blown sand
so that it has holes to make music.
Only the stirring air gives voice to its beauty.
Some things are hidden, like kaysha,
the stone's secret -- a gem in its matrix,
or the flashing spark released from struck flint,
lovely only once revealed by the right circumstance.
Then there is value which is definite but difficult to see:
parrl, no more than a glint or a gleam, such as
a diamond in the rough or a gold coin in a dungheap,
that many would miss but a discerning person would seize.
Sorrow too has its beauty in aajir, an excellent sadness,
for the desert is barren yet breathtaking in its magnificence;
if it were more fecund and easy on its people,
it would lose this austere splendor.
This place has a great and terrible beauty, guzelek,
that which is alluring but also dangerous,
the harsh edges of the canyons,
and the cutting colors of the whispering sand.
Loneliness too is attractive, a golden chain
threaded through a wanderer's wayard heart:
daira doshye, a loop of nebula in an empty sky
so utterly beyond any city's shining reach.
Elven eyes have their own awareness of bright heat,
turning as they depart to gaze upon vaala vân,
the charm of a camp seen from a distance at night,
with fires glowing between the tall dim tents.
Come into the oasis and there is dalagi,
dappled patches of dark and light, cool and warm,
wavering and shimmering like sunbeams through water
casting shadows upon the bottom of a pool.
At twilight, dantêlerey develops, the lace-heat
of patterns amongst the rocks and sand, all crisp edges
with dots and arcs of different temperatures
defining a fall of dusk and glitter.
Go out in the desert, go alone, walk from your fire
and find kâvalan, the solitary beauty of
one warm, bright thing against a cool, dark background
as rare and precious as an oasis itself.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-04 09:19 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2013-01-04 10:11 pm (UTC)This one is less lyrical than my usual style, because it is adapted from dictionary entries. That's an actual poetic form, but one that doesn't get used very often. I think the only one that's come out with a really poetic flavor is "A Few Words About Loki," which was inspired by entries but written specifically as a poem from scratch.
>>but it's a wonderful piece of world-building and conlang vocabulary. There's a great sense of love for the desert in this piece and in the words you've chosen to describe/illustrate.<<
Yay! That makes me happy. A language says so much about those who speak it. Seshaa has really gotten under my skin over the years.
>> I think dalagi is my favourite stanza. <<
Mine is probably kavalan.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2013-01-05 07:24 pm (UTC)*giggles* Oh, that one is lovely too! It's deliciously subtle. Thank you for linking it. ^-^
A language says so much about those who speak it.
Oh so definitely, either through the words it has/uses or through the words it lacks. Sometimes it can say something about the speaker's (national) history too. Have you read Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher? It discusses the relationship between languages and societies, so I thought I'd mention it in case you haven't. ^-^