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