This song is of course the mirror image of the last song but from a male perspective. Again both are lovely songs expressing young love and may well have been part of a wedding feast.
Thus their survival as part of a body of teaching used by the priesthood.
All good.
.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE SONGS OF TANTALIP
One
The night rolls back to reveal the promise of
another day. The great sun comes up in the morning time and the lotus opens to
reveal its shining heart displayed in devotion. You come and my heart leaps up
from my breast to meet you.
The wind blows and shakes the wild fig tree, you
come and your delicate perfiime enwraps my spirit, and my body is shaken. I
become weak within the shadow of your presence. I feel a radiance about you
which calls to something within me and I am awed by the wonder of a love which
can subdue all base feelings.
I have seen you. In the cool dewtime of the
morning I passed on my way and you were bathing in the freshening waters. I saw
your pure loveliness and all else faded and passed from me, the beauty of the morning
was dimmed before the vision I had of you. Modest maiden of mine, clad in a
white garment which clutched your supple limbs, I saw you and my heart swelled
up in joy. The breath was stopped within my throat.
You looked up and smiled a chaste greeting,
covering yourself in a garment expressing your maidenly modesty.
Your delicate hand plucked a lily, and my heart
left its cradle when you came up out of the waters and drew near. You embraced me with cool, glistening arms
and open wet lips. I savoured the joys of the gods, with a greater promise of unutterable joys to come,
before I continued on my way. Would that I were the fishes in the pool, that I might be so near to you twice
daily.
Yet I am a man and consumed in the fires of
manhood in my need for you. Still you remain veiled in reserve and I pray to the great god for the assurance that
some day my sister in love will be truly mine. Her reserve and modesty, treasured as gifts to be surrendered in
love, mean more to me than gold and pearls or the treasures of kings. What is mine no king, no matter how
great, can claim. It is love's mantle bestowed on manliness.
The night comes and I dream it is our wedding
night and you are beside me. My spirit rises on wings of joy, singing, "O let my love find its ultimate
expression in this night of beauty!" Your breath caresses me with the fragrance of Heaven, your lips dispense the
heavy wine of love. Our bodies meet in ecstasy and part, but our spirits remain mingled in the greater bond that
knows no severance. Our united souls share together the destiny of eternity. 1 sleep at last in the gentle arms
of contentment.
0 Great Readers of the Souls of Men, see the
strength of my love. Is it not untainted with base feelings? Is it not wholesome and undemanding? Is it not protective
of womanly secrets? Let it endure on Earth, that it may blossom in glorious fullness throughout the
great ages in everlasting splendour. May it shine forever in the unwalled Halls of Eternity. O grant me my
heart's desire!
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