Love- a subject that enthralls several, haunts many and puzzles one and all.It has been said that love is never singular except in syllable and probably thats true.But then again, who can refute the adage which says “Trip over love and you will get up and out ; fall in love, and you will fall forever.”? Love knows no reason, rhyme, logic or limits and is a world in itself. Condemned by several, cherished by the lucky few and survived by the fewer still, it is an enigma,a cult, a creed- to explore, to revere, to worship and to follow.But it promises no favours, announces no incentives and can be cruel to the core.The story of Echo and Narcissus is one such moving tale of unrelenting love and the fate it meets.For those of you, who have not read it yet, here it is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus.
In the following piece of poetry, the spirit of Narcissus is reborn as the knight Aaron who is blindly in love with the most beautiful Lady of his times, Andromeda, unaware of the fact that her own best friend and companion Abigail,Echo incarnate, loves him with an unflinching love in life and death.On his insistence, Abigail arranges for his meeting with Lady Andromeda, dying a death in every single breath and moment while she does that.Andromeda, on the other hand, despises the knight on account of the fact that she knows that he loves her and it sickens her that he does so even though he is aware that Andromeda gives not a hoot to him.On this fateful night Aaron comes to her castle, she is possessed by Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge and her hate for the knight intensifies multiple times.Heres the account of what follows :
Out burst the mantle of grim clouds, shrieked and shone Zeus in rage,
The conifers rattled beneath the flashes of fatal thunder, the hummocks shuddered ;
Torrents that deluged the gradients and gales that shook the plaintive bases, blasted in harmony their rampage,
The Night went all out, Artemis wavered ;
And loomed large the Castle of Lady Andromeda
Blazing, bewitching, blinding glory, a face shrouded in equal measures by wrath and grace,
A lady of virtues and vices, a kiss of death, sepulchre of a mirage ;
She stood and glowed on the keep of the castle, her locks and winds in close embrace,
Her ivory robe swirled and tossed, creating with the thunderbolts and the moon, a divine montage ;
And in her eyes,flickered and stagnated the vision of the man she waited
He was in the wind, and then at the mighty tower,
A flash of virility, a glimpse of fanciable visage ;
Radiating with each gallop of the stallion, sharp,shiny tendrils of power,
As he streaked to and made halt at the castle, glimmered his armour like some old forgotten adage ;
And the instant next, he ascended the keep – valiant Lord Aaron
Andromeda reached out, to give the audacious knight her hand, as if in command,
And thus spake she ” Thou dost come my lover, in pursuit of me and reachest my abode through this inferno barely ;
The ire of the heavens thou didst endure but who said,love, then, is a fair demand ?
Struck not by the shards of indifference, love is but the mightiest might, this i propose all bluntly;
But let this be known to thee, if two dont play at this game, doomed is the one who does so and lays his own altar at woe”
“Aeons ago, thou wert this hunter, born to Liriope and Cephissus, beautiful than the age itself,
Christened Narcissus and how truly, the foil to thy namesake flower – vain, haughty and disdainful ;
Thou didst love truly and faithfully, but none other than lowly thyself,
The love of Echo, for thee, eternal and forever eager, was never returned, tainting it disgraceful ;
She pined away,I adore her for that, thine love in her killed her, and Nemesis abhors thee for that ”
The knight, stunned and reminiscent,recalled with dread the dawn of the day,
Sheathed in gloom and an anxious countenance ;
Came to him the manner of Lady Abigail, devastated, in dismay,
As she bade him farewell, to the meet she herself had designed, her eyes spoke volumes of pure penance ;
How could he not see the love therein, how did he discredit the integrity of it, and the irony of calling love blind – a fatal flow, a mere habit
“And so thou meet thy Nemesis tonight, scorn and contempt and death at my side,
Thou offended love, and twice at that, and chose to run after deathly delusions ;
Foliage of love, if transformed into barbs of vengeance, only by rules of Ate abide,
Harken to thy Fates now, as they decree justice to love and grant thee thy final summons ;
The throes of a ravished heart, now will thou gauge and this blade of thy unrequited love will end thine days ”
As she spoke, she brandished the sabre and lunged at the throat of her errant suitor,
But before the iron could draw blood, out soared the poisoned arrow ;
Shot under the incensed eyes, and from the bow furious with anger,
Beauty unrivalled, charm deathly, rode her horse, Lady Abigail aglow ;
The walls thence turned scarlet as they were bound to be, with the life and blood of the Lady who ruled them a moment before mercilessly
” You speak of love Andromeda, and know nothing of it,
It seeks not revenge, nor redemption – well versed in how to burn or sublime ;
It completes itself and stands in both receipt and rejection equally befit,
Deriving its existence in itself, relishing on the slightest chime ;
A look, a nod , a smile or a word, Hatred, indifference, ignorance or forgetfulness are enough to keep it to its roots anchored ”
” He loves me or he loves me not, never did matter to me, nor it will,
In this lifetime, or the one I left behind, love was never a game, nor vocation for me ;
Not loving someone back or loving someone who loves you not is not a crime,but standstill,
It will pass, your love will not, uncorrupted if it stands by infatuation or envy ;
For as long as the Earth sustains hearts and humanity or the Olympus reigns above, there has been and there will be love………”
( Words fade as Abigail gives her hand to Aaron to help him stand, and they walk away from the castle holding hands in the torrential night.)