A duet to paradise
05 July 2015
JIMMY DREKORE & MARIE-ROSE SAU
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Kina Securities Award for Poetry
If you can see paradise from the ugly terrain,
Mt Wilhelm is smiling at you, my dear
…I always have seen paradise through the ugliest terrain
Even through the eyes of my dreams...
Then you have the eyes of a queen,
Can you see the empty throne beside Wilhelm?
Through the eyes of the queen in my dream
I can see it clear
That empty chair of royalty,
Seat made of the finest cuscus fur,
Head proudly attired in glorious plumes fit for a king
And guarded by the spirit warriors only my eyes can see
Yes I see that empty throne and it is alluring me into its arms
From your feet stretches a carpet of forest moss
with guard of honour from Wilhelm's finest soldiers
Let the sole of your feet lost in this cosiness
He watches like an impatient groom
I know that groom is impatient
But my desires have always been ancient.
Onto that carpet of forest moss
I long to weep at my silent loss
The soles of my feet are sore with weariness
For I have travelled far from my Simbu paradise...
Oh you fairy-tale queen
Like a butterfly you leap once again
Maybe I am glad that I now can sing
of missing my paradise that I am not singing in vain...
Your song shall sail through the gorges
Like the sound of crystal streams
marrying light and mists
giving birth to rainbow of love
That rainbow of love
Of light and of life
May be the groom and to it, maybe I, his wife.
Upon the sleeping forest between the crest of those gorges
Shall my pride glide
Soaring above the bosom of that paradise in one accord with that rainbow of love
If heaven is for real, you have just brought it to earth
Joy to the earthlings
And praise to the heavens above…
Daniel - well said. There is a lot of poetry in the Bible but much is lost in translation. Rhymes don't often translate, and rhythms are specific to language. Just ask a Kuman speaker!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_poetry
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 11 July 2015 at 06:25 AM
This poem is really beautiful like the love poems in the Song of Songs also called 'The Song of Solomon'in the Old Testament.
Two paras from the Second Song reads...
the woman recites:
I hear my lovers voice
He comes running over the mountains
racing across the hills to me
My lover is like a gazelle
like a young stag
There he stands beside the wall.
He looks in through the window
and glances through the
lattice
My lover speaks to me
And the man replies...
Come then my love
my darling come with me
the winter is over, the rains
have stopped
in the countryside the
flowers are in bloom
This is the time for singing
the song of doves is heard in
the land..
Truly 'man' is a love being.
Posted by: Daniel Ipan Kumbon | 10 July 2015 at 05:55 PM
I should add that in the southern sky Venus is above Jupiter. And you can see them again tonight.
http://earthsky.org/todays-image/venus-and-jupiter-west-after-sunset-june-2015
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 10 July 2015 at 02:24 PM
I loved Chemistry lessons when I was in high school.
Once we grew crystals.
You suspend one tiny piece of sugar on a thread into a beaker of saturated sugar solution - this is the seed. In a week you have a crystal garden!
Magic. Much like PNG Attitude.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 10 July 2015 at 06:26 AM
The limerick is an invitation, the rest is the seed.
Should be...
You gifted young poets from PNG
Can your talented musings help me?
To add to this scribbling
With no unseemly quibbling
Help one old Lapun to see.
_______________
Rose and I have watched without compunction
The heavenly copulation of Venus and Jupiter
Where there's no corruption.
But for a moment
Without a comment
The ISS floats by.
We earthly voyeurs!
Rude enough to gaze with impunity
On heavenly purity,
For humanity's consumption.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 09 July 2015 at 01:49 PM
You gifted young poets from PNG
Can your talented musings help me?
To add to this scribbling
With no unseemly quibbling.
Rose and I have watched without compunction
The heavenly copulation of Venus and Jupiter
Where there's no corruption.
But for a moment
Without a comment
The ISS floats by.
We earthly voyeurs!
Rude enough to gaze with impunity
On heavenly purity.
For humanity's consumption.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 08 July 2015 at 06:12 PM
The whole poem is wonderful, but those last four lines are particularly appropriate.
We have just been in the back garden watching Venus and Jupiter in close conjunction, and what do you know, the International Space Station sails by - easily visible to the naked eye.
Man's feeble efforts to conquer space from Earth and heaven's glorious eternal beings united! At least for a few minutes.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 08 July 2015 at 05:49 PM
A great idea Jimmy and Marie! And collaborative poetry (and music) has a long and proud tradition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_poetry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music_written_in_collaboration
PS I tried to start a collaborative story on PNG Attitude a year or so ago, but had no takers!
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 08 July 2015 at 05:30 PM
Hmmm...interesting! sounds like a romantic psalm to a forbidden love. Like it.
Posted by: Bessielah David | 08 July 2015 at 01:56 PM
Thanks Dominica. This is an accidental piece. When I provoked Marie Rose (one of PNG's gifted poets) with the first two lines, she dropped the next two lines and we rolled it out to what is above.
Posted by: Jimmy Drekore | 08 July 2015 at 09:33 AM
So so lovely!
Posted by: Dominica Are | 06 July 2015 at 12:43 PM