Taliesin/ Mourning song

Taliesin is a legend. Taliesin was a real man. There, between myth and reality, I caught many lines about him, and they came from Aneirin.

Out of pain my song rises,

Out of the dark.

Through the mist it soars

Into the night.

Higher and higher it flies

Too high to see,

Reaching the unreachable

The unknown.

Out of the depth my song rises

Out of the dark,

Plunging into the water

Into the night.

Deeper and deeper it falls

Too deep to feel,

Singing still, ringing quietly

In the halls of the dead.

Out of the dream my song rises,

Out of the dusk

Between day and night,

Sun and moon.

Beating wildly are its wings,

Unclipped, untamed

Is the spirit,

Uncatcheable is the voice.

Out of memory my song rises,

Out of the past,

Unwinding time,

Uniting spaces.

Louder and louder it sings,

Passion drives it forth,

Bleeding and burning,

It sings out.

Out of love and loss my song rises

Out of the abyss

Left in my heart and mind

By the passing of Taliesin.

**

Old legends say,it rained incessantly for days when Taliesin died. Cerridwen's tears, they called it. Everything mourned him, everything cried over him - and the sun never showed its glorious face in three days.

Old legends say, Bala lake was full of rage when Taliesin died. Cerridwen's pain, they called it. A mother in mourning for her long lost son, a goddess crying out in anguish and disbelief - and the sky was the color of her eyes, silver-grey, bluish-green, black as coal and the darkest of nights.

Old legends say, the music faded when Taliesin died. It stopped, as if something was missing, as if something was broken. The birds fell silent, and there was no music in streams and winds- it died with the one who inspired it.

Old legends say, the moon dimmed her light when Taliesin died. The nights were pitch black, with nothing to hold on to. Storms tore up the sky, and no light was there to guide the lost back home.

Old legends say, the earth stopped when Taliesin died. Cerridwen's heart stopped beating, they said. Nothing was ever the same after it, nothing could ever be.

Old legends say, it rained in torrents for three days after Taliesin died. The soil was so damp, it was impossible to walk. The rivers flooded, the sea roared as a wounded beast. Cerridwen's tears, they said, but they were wrong. They were mine.

It rained incessantly for days when he died, for my pain called the rains forth, and all my tears could not dull my pain, for Aneirin is my name, and I loved him the most.

***

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Can you hear me

Teyrnas y ser,

In your realm of summer stars,

Where no mortal voice matters,

Where no mortal love remains?

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Can you see me

From your golden throne

In the Summerlands,

Where they sing praise to you,

Where the bard is immortal?

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Can you even hear?

I am down below, Taliesin

Stretched on your grave,

Waiting for a sign,

Waiting for death to have me.

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Does my voice have enough strength

To fly where you are?

Look at me, Taliesin,

I am grief-torn,

Beaten down by despair.

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Or do you shut your ears

When I talk to you?

Stretched on your grave am I,

With no hope

Of rising up.

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Do the ones who took you,

Hear me?

Does the Good Folk hear me,

When I call your name

Stretched on your grave?

Do you hear me, Taliesin,

Or do you not care

For the one

Whose heart stopped beating

Once you were gone

Teyrnas y ser?

Hear me, Taliesin,

Hear me in your blessed peace!

Why don't you

Rip my heart out

And take it

With you where I cannot go?

What need do I have

For a heart broken,

What need do I have

For a heart shattered

What need do I have

For a heart poisoned

By your passing?

Come down, Taliesin,

Take my grief,

Come and rip it out of me,

For I have no use

Of my heart now,

Once it's dead.

Stretched on your grave

Is the one

Who is no longer strong

To withstand the pain,

So come, Taliesin,

And finish me off.