Deep Silence

I put off reading this for a long time. I did not know what it was, and I still do not entirely know. It was lying at the foot of the gate. I do not know who dropped it, and I saw no one nearby either.

Five words run along the top edge: water, earth, fire, air, spirit. Below them, five stanzas. Counting them, I understood: each stanza falls under one word.

I pass it on as it is.

a green reed of the marsh i was
aimless and purposeless i was
the reed bed was my only home
neither song nor breath i was

from earth i came, what shall i do
to earth i go, what shall i do
the start is known the end is known
what shall i do with this world

a dry reed of the marsh i was
burning in the fierce fire i was
with seven embers i was pierced
seeing what i sought i was

they hollowed me out, let me moan
they kissed and laid me down, let me moan
its start is absence its end is void
each time hû is said i moan

the ney says hû the heart trembles hû
and trembling wipes away its rust
the ney turns silence the heart stillness
and stillness turns a mirror to light

I do not know who wrote it. It seems to be written in the mouth of a reed, but in the last stanza the reed disappears; what remains is the ney and the heart.

Translator’s note. In the original, the word “I” appears in only two of the five stanzas, both times in a complaint. English will not permit that; the pronoun is obligatory here. The loss is mine, not the parchment’s.

I should also say that I set this text to music myself. That sound is not Devran’s; it is the thing I added. There was no notation on the parchment, only these lines.

The melody was generated with an AI tool (Google Flow Music).

If you want to hear it: youtu.be/z0dSaEtxchI