Verses for the prayers of Hasanyah the Queen to be sung at the Midnight Song: V. For the Fast of Malfaloth

Six verses.

Malfaloth the Silver Hunter

Wandered long through Lower Heaven

Seeking quarry, while the seasons

Sped away, and Vishnarr seeking

Climbed the star to Lower Heaven

Which the lord of lizards showed him.

Long my heart has been a-wandering,

Seeking new loves, growing older

In the wisdom taught in cities

(Counting-houses, hidden temples

To the greed which grows in mankind).

I have ceased to keep my vigil.

Vishnarr came there with the serpent—

With the cold-skinned Salamander—

Vishnarr came there, empire seeking,

Stole the scepter, Mankind ruled.

Then a darkness fell on waters,

Fell on Lanenomen’s cities.

Let my heart learn, keep its vigil

Lest a coldness grow within me,

Lest I wander while the passions

Steal the scepter, rule my nature.

Then a darkness overcomes me,

I am lost, my reason falters.

Malfaloth, the Silver Hunter,

From his wanderings at springtime

Then returned, unto Onmanda,

Unto her who first was mother

Of the world of grass and tree-roots,

He returned and found her weeping.

I will turn back to my weeping,

To the many tears my heart sheds

When in springtime, my heart thawing,

I remember my heart’s homeland.

Gone the scepter, gone the lordship,

Gone the tokens of my rule.