Canto IV: The Phoenix

[The following verse was declaimed by Cinxia is a loud voice.]

Come sing the song of Tinia's glorious gift
Bestowed upon the newly wedded pair,
The glowing God and Goddess joined as one,
Long-bosomed Jana, Queen of Starry Night,
And Jan'e, Face of Day, who burneth bright.
For Tinia granted to our Ancestors
This island for the Janid Family,
Eternal Sardo, refuge for our Race.

[The entire chorus sang the following.]

He stood upon the Ramparts of the Sky
        And raised the burning Thunderbolt on high.
It split the ground in Sardo's western part,
        And filled the Earth with Fire from the dart.
His Seed was planted in the Earth, which swelled
        With Child, a prodigy unparalleled.
The Mountain Arci* burst with blazing flame,
    [*Monte Arci, a Sardinian volcano]
        And from Her Womb arose a wondrous bird
With eagle's form, the Phoenix is Her name;
        Her shriek of joy around the world was heard.
Emerging from the glowing womb, She spread
        Her wings, which flashed with crimson, purple, gold,
And to the City of the Sun* She sped,      [*Heliopolis]
        So that Her splendor Wisemen might behold.
From this occasion number they their days,
        And number they their years. The Star ablaze,
The Dog, within his home records the place,
        For when returneth he, and done his race,
In nearly thrice five hundred years, then neigh
        The time the Phoenix goeth home to die.*

    [*1461 years, the Sothic Cycle, or Great
    Year, during which time the heliacal
    rising of Sirius takes place on 1 Thoth,
    the first day of the Egyptian Wandering
    Year.]

Then Arci, sacred Mother Mountain, dear
        To us, awaketh, breathing pungent fumes,
And in the flames, for knoweth She no fear,
        The Phoenix landeth, whom the blaze entombs.
By roaring blast is scorched the heavens' height,
        The Ancient Bird consumed and lost to sight.
For thrice three days the roaring stoppeth not,
        But on the ninth the blaze recedeth back
Within the Mountain's Womb, whence is begot
        A Phoenix, rising from the billowing black.
Unfoldeth She Her shining wings and proud,
        And breaketh rocks when croweth She aloud
A clarion call beginning each new Age.
        Aloft She soareth, telling ev'ry Sage.

The Ages past, ye Janid Bards now tell!
        Now seven times the Dog hath run the round,
And seven times the Phoenix bade farewell,
        Yea, seven times reborn from underground!
The Phoenix' age is now three hundred years,
        And one and ninety more. Before rebirth
We wait another thousand, say the Seers,
        And sixty-nine, ere joineth She the Earth.*

[*Since this was sung in 1990, by this reckoning the Phoenix must have been created in 8621 BCE (on July 19, Julian calendar, the start of the Sothic Cycle).]

            Such is our Land's antiquity,
            And such our Race's pedigree!

From ages past Thy Story we have heard;
        Watch over us Thou Brave and Ancient Bird!

[continue to Canto V]

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Last updated: Sat April 21, 2012