Pyramus-Thisbe - a Selfless Love-W

Pyramus was the handsome young man Thisbe the fair maiden of Babylon. The houses of their parents did adjoin Neighborhood brought the two in relation. And the acquaintance ripened into love And the fire within them burnt with bright glow. Would have married, but their parents forbid Ardor in hearts of both they couldn’t forbid They did converse by signs, one can think of The fire within them burnt like glow covered But Venus doesn’t always befriend true love. They found crack in wall that parted the houses In spared passage for tender messages Caused by fault in the wall of the mansion What will not love find for satisfaction! They passed the tender messages of love As the night fell they said farewell with awe Moving backward and forward through the gap She on her side, he on his, kissed the gap. One morn the sun put out the stars above From the watchful eyes, they tried to slip up But Venus doesn’t always befriend true love. Then Thisbe stole forth as agreed upon Unobserved, her head covered with a veil Out of city’s bounds edifice well known Waited for Pyramus near a fountain trail. In the dim light she descried a lioness Nearing the fountain with blood reeking jaws With a recent slaughter to slake her thirst. She fled dropping her veil out of fright. After quenching thirst turned back for her cove Renting the veil in bloody mouth on her retreat But Venus won’t always befriend true love. Having delayed Pyramus arrived there Saw footsteps of the lioness in the sand And found the veil all bloody over there Crying picked up the rent veil in his hand. Thought himself to be the cause of her death Covering the veil with kiss and with tear And said, come ye lioness tear with your teeth Let my blood also shall stain your texture. He plunged sword into his heart with a shove Blood spurted, tingling the tree with red color But Venus doesn’t always befriend true love. Thisbe stepped out not to disappoint him She noticed the change in the tree’s color In the agonies of death she saw him. A shudder ran as ripple in still water. She saw her veil and his scabbard empty. He has slain himself for her sake only. She said, “I could be brave and follow thee Death alone couldn’t prevent my joining thee Love and death join us, one tomb be our grove” She plunged the sword in her breast near the tree But Venus doesn’t always befriend true love. Envoi Such tale of the self-less love presented The two bodies in one tomb were buried Pyramus-Thisbe tale our hearts do move Berries serve memorials of their blood But Venus doesn’t always befriend true love. +++ Dr. Ram Mehta Second Place win Contest: Your favourite poem by Giorgio Veneto **Chant royal [shahn rwa-yal], A French verse form normally consisting of five stanzas of eleven 10-syllable lines rhyming ababccddede, followed by an envoi (or half-stanza) rhyming ddede. The last line of the first stanza is repeated as a refrain at the end of the succeeding stanzas and of the envoi. The pattern is similar to that of the ballade, but even more demanding. 88