XXII. The First Prayer of Hasanyah

To the Queen who bore sorrows in her womb.

Thoranrai, the Queen of Starland
Yoked herself to Peiboth’s chariot
Long ago before the western
Seas were banned to Treian people.
All your hopes are buried, Mistress,
Drowned beneath the waves of Ocean.

All the promise of your people
Was scattered by a mighty whirlwind
When the envy of the nations
Made the throne of ancient Feihoth
A prize for jealousy and conquest.
But your sorrows are the greatest.

I saw a child chase an egret—
With golden beak and dappled feathers—
Long he chased it, long pursuing.
When he caught it, the bird in anger
Set upon him, pecked his eyes out.
The child wandered, blindly weeping.

I saw a child hard pursuing
A swarm of butterflies at springtime.
But all the butterflies had stingers,
Drove the child to a river
Where his screams were drowned in water.
So with monarchs’ mad ambitions.

In your womb, O fair Thoranrai,
Two fates struggle, two ambitions:
One for honor, heavy-handed;
One for Empire wide and boundless,
Covering all the eastern kingdoms
In the smoke of ruin and struggle.

In my heart too, two ambitions
Grow and struggle to have the mastery:
One to hold my little power,
One to seize by right of conquest.
Those two children ever-birthing,
I must die—for my salvation.

Thoranrai, O Queen of Starland—
How you yoked yourself to evil!
Long ago before the Inland
Sea was open to our people
You gave yourself to wed a tyrant,
And doom you carried in your womb.