Chapter VII: The Gape and the Creation

In the seventh segment of his travels, Mendelovitch climbs to the top of Mount Tabor. At midnight, he encounters a growling bird that opens for him a new chapter in his search for the Queen.

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English translation (scroll the image from right to left):


Up from Seed Valley,
Mendelovitch ascends Mount Tabor,
Far from nearest friends
And near faraway fields.

Chapter 7: The Gape and the Creation

Donkey: "Eyy eyyyy!"

Mendelovitch: "Ah, a braying donkey!"

Dogs: “Out out! Out out!”

Mendelovitch: "Ah, shouting dogs!"

And so comes Mendelovitch
To the living mountain's peak
Upon the midnight hour.

Mendelovitch: ”Once had I felt myself a man,
Erecting in my woman,
The fair Gwendolinda,
As I compared tractates
Of ploughing and sowing,
Devouring plates of herring
And spuds from the ground.
For my transgressions I have now
But one and only Queen."

On the mountain's bald top,
Bound between its temples,
Stands a Holey Ruin.

A sound rises from the ruin:
"Kumkumkumkum
Gey gey!
Avek! Avek!
Kumkumkumkum
Gey! Gey!"

Mendelovitch: "What is this sound
'Tween call and screech?"

And Mendelovitch stepped through
The ruin's gates
And beheld a common growling pigeon.

Pigeon: "Kuuum! Kuuuum!
Gey gey gey avek!"

Mendelovitch: "I no longer know
Your migrants’ tongue.
What is your command,
My common ground pigeon?"

And the growler burst
Through the ruin's roof
And her raiment became shining
Like that of the common sky pigeon,
So as no fuller on earth
Can white them.

Pigeon: “N ne nem es avek!”

Mendelovitch: "Hear me, for in this world
I have seen the flesh,
And in me an egg was laid,
And a desire to touch
Enkindled in my aged heart!”

The wind rises and roils
Shrouding Mendelovitch
Between near and far,
Warping through the flames
Sense into sight.

 

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