Today, for reasons that cannot be revealed here, turns out to be an astonishingly auspicious day to post the complete version of The Heleniad.
I sing this to the young lady in the front row. You others all may listen.
THE HELENIAD
Canto the first
And so Miss Helenius
Feeling most curious
Not quite anonymous
Yet not yet eponymous
Intent on the spurious
Though nothing injurious
In a moment unserious
Set out on a lark
Like brazen young Theseus
Or better, Prometheus
Whose tales still fire us
And often inspire us
To passions erroneous
If not quite felonious
But somewhat delirious
And never too dark
§ The heart can bedazzle us
And this may be perilous
For the heart is perfidious
And somewhat insidious
Those moments that capture us
Can make us feel rapturous
Till hopes grow innumerous
Quite out of the blue
The place was commodious
The music melodious
The night serendipitous
For adventure precipitous
As the Gods like to play with us
And so have their way with us
So he, feeling humorous,
Did pick up her cue
§ The girl was vivacious
And somewhat voracious
The liquor contagious
The boy felt outrageous
Their mood grew gregarious
Till, feeling hilarious,
They descended the palace
And took to the street
In this vast megalopolis
Our winter metropolis
What is our true purpose?
Do our moments usurp us?
For when things become amorous
Then our hearts, feeling glamorous,
May drink from the Chalice
And so be complete
Canto the second
Their talk was far-ranging, the rhythm was changing
And rhyme rearranging out there in the night
Their thoughts began drifting, for something was shifting
A curtain was lifting, a song taking flight
And so then she kissed him, and yes she did bind him
The wall was behind him and yes yes they said
This flower of the mountain, like the girls Andalusian
Perhaps an illusion, her lips were so red
Her arms were around him, her body imploring
The boy, now adoring, returned her caress
Say yes mountain flower and the wind somewhere blowing
Their hearts madly going and yes I will Yes.
§ Moments may sway us, but kisses betray us,
For fate won't obey us, and oft goes astray
Twas fateful that meeting, two hearts fiercely beating
But alas, joy is fleeting when stolen away
In a turn most appalling the darkness came calling
For a curse was befalling, a thing of their fears
And a figure demonic - it was almost iconic -
In voice monotonic said: "Seventeen years!"
It was all rather vexing, and sorely perplexing,
This grim specter hexing their love most sublime
"What be you?" they wondered, then the night air was sundered
As the dark figure thundered: "The demon - of Time!"
§ "Je parlerai en français
C'est la langue de la vérité
Pour vous dire ce que je sais"
Ainsi le démon a dit
"Il est temps pour vous d'entendre
C'est le moment de comprendre
Vos rêves que je veux prendre"
Alors le démon a ri
La jeune fille a pensée
"Dix-sept ans" a-t-elle répété
"Cela fait beaucoup d'années
Et la vie est brève"
Le garçon a dit "Mon amour
Je te parle de tout mon coeur
Tu sais que je t'adore
Est ce que tout était un rêve?"
En un jour une vie peut changer
Tout est ré-arrangé
Un rêve est dérangé
Et l'amour s'est dissout
Le nuit était très sombre
Le monde était dans l'ombre
Qu'est ce qui est dans un nombre?
Tristement, peut-être tout.
Epilogue
There's a room in my soul where the old shattered dreams
Lie in pieces all over the floor
Where the stillness of time shades the windows, it seems
And a demon stands guard at the door
But sometimes a memory lights in my mind
And it shines in the soft attic air
And a strange kind of music plays sweetly and kind
That I let myself hear, if I dare
This flower of the mountain, this girl Andalusion,
This force I could not understand
Yes your touch Miss Helenius was, in conclusion
The caress of a Theremin hand
But like delicate fragrance of madeleines dipped
Into lime-flowers long gone away
Your succulent kiss so deliciously sipped
Beguiles me even today