Poem - Arete Serenitas

[tanithryudo]

I dunno, maybe it's the hour, or maybe playing with muses on MUD had inspired me, but I wrote up a poem for the third account's profile. The poem is sort of based on the avatar image, of course, and partly on the name.



Arete Serenitas
by: me

When darkest before dawn
Pray of Eos to herald the end of the night
When in the tempest rage
Pray of Iris to herald the end of the blight.

When endless bloodshed flows
Pray of Irene's guidance to end the fight
When lost in unknown wilds
Pray of Luna and the stars' guiding light

Endless prayers through time are given wing
To which no god e'er descend their height
Yet unlooked for, the wonder within
The human virtues and human might

Of all the ills from Pandora's box
Was Hope gifted last of Man's birthright
Leaders, creators, peacemakers, all
Dream for mortal-kind wings to take flight

*****

Footnotes:

1. OK, it's kind of meh, but what do you expect at almost midnight while I'm on meds.

2. Only two items on that avatar costed over 3k. The staff was 7k and is actually a hand down from my main account. The wings is around 20k.

3. Also, I did a search for Chinese literary references to nightingales (for my main account). I came up with the two following by western authors:
The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen
The Chinese Nightingale by Vachel Lindsay
Would be nice to find some references from Chinese authors, although that would involve a lot of reading through Chinese sites. *sigh*

Comments

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

A quick google turned up nothing on Nightingales. All the references to 夜鸣莺 or 夜鸣鸟 are all references to western literature. From this, I'm going to conclude that the Nightingale stories are nothing more than westerners using an exotic reference without bothering to do the research. Much like no one seems to realize Kung Fu does not equal martial arts, but whatever.

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

Well, according to the non-literary sources, the bird does exist in China.

I thought the nme of the bird is just 夜莺

All I can find so far was this: http://article.hongxiu.com/a/2006-11-26/1565074.shtml

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

Yes, I know the bird exists in China, it's the freaking mockingbird. I'm saying that the stories of Nightingale is more a westernization of the exotic orient than it is an actual reflection of the bird's place in Chinese mythology/folklore.

D'you know who wrote the poem? 'Cuz it looks kind of meh to me.

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

Whut? I thought the mockingbird is the bird that copies other birds' songs? Google says they're different species...

No idea who wrote the poem. Might be someone modern for all I know.