From the Land Covered with Gold

Like Dogs with Noses Covered with Craps

Image courtesy: Jewel casket in steel and enamel by Alexander Fisher. c.1902. From “Studio-Talk” The Studio. (www.victorianweb.org.) Is it a mere coincidence? There is the mit (the 'M') of Manipuri script, near the right stand.

In the land of
jewels, the birds lay no more
manipulated golden eggs
and the pearls lie
in the guarded and decked up
oyster of ministers,
Hidden but exposed on their mistresses'
necks and ears and a couple of them each
Hidden again, those are tied on their unseen fleshes;
As big as the largest booby traps the stones,
Unaffected they lay; on them

The destiny was engraved, of tales,
of dead men, of violated women;
In the land covered with jewel
As in dogs, their noses covered with craps;
The gold flows, turning into
tears unrestrained,
in the rivers of blood
wailing for the unknown dead people,

In the crimson sky
cast the silver in utter futility,
The bronze are broken into a thousand
pieces of outrageous dreams,

The casket hold
A thousand whole,
Of wasted lives;
Why should it break
the unbreakable break
the unbreakable enamel break down?

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“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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