Fireside Mourn

This piece was written for the memorial ship burning in the fall of 2021. To compose, I started with an English translation of Oedipus at Colonus. I then took a passage by the chorus and changed it to fit the meter which Sophocles would have used in 406 BCE.

O proud unseen Persephone if prayers allowed

Let me adore you with a plead this solemn day

And King of death who reins below where all is dark

The dead you rule on iron throne I beg of you

Protect him from the mourning tears the breaking pain

Defend his soul from suffering and sudden doom

Pass down our friend into the world of moonless dark

To dwell upon the open fields of blessed dead

For agony abounded through his briefest life

He lived with blind and senseless aches of suffering

O stop his pain you splendid power then provide

A restoration to his rightful earned fame

Dear goddesses of Earth and Furies dark as night

O Worldly son and depths below I beg of you

Please tame the beast who blocks the gate to watch the world

Who waits for dead untamable since day was dawn

Let Cerberus be clear the path when he doth walk

And wander till he reach the meadow made for death

And god of dear eternal sleep O let him rest

Of this I plead and pray to you with my last breath