From Valerius Aedituus (verse)
Mangan, John Sherry
504 THE COMMONWEAL September 30, 1925 be able to tell him how he might obtain the substance that would shape the stones. So once again Sokar was brought before King Solomon. And Solomon...
...it became hollow and broke, and the dead king fell stiffly upon the floor of the Temple...
...The moor-hen came back to the nest...
...But ever since that time, Sokar goes lamely, with two sticks in his hands to help him along...
...The Lord of Earth had entrusted samur to a bird—to the moor-hen...
...September 30, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL...
...And Solomon told him that a term would be put to his labors, and that a day would come when he would be freed, if he would tell how to obtain samur...
...And the stones that were fetched by Sokar were shaped by the cutting made by this substance, and no iron was used upon them...
...And, finding the nest of the moor-hen, he covered it all over with glass...
...Sokar, seeing the king prone upon the ground, let fall the stone he was carrying...
...She tried again and again, but she could not reach to her young ones who held up their mouths behind the sheet of glass...
...Phileros, why do you bear this torch...
...So samur was brought to King Solomon...
...He leaned upon his staff, and his staff supported him even though he was dead, and the ring with the bright stone in it still shone upon his finger...
...Sokar went on working and not knowing that he who commanded him was no longer in life...
...In one of his rages he came before the little house of a poor widow—she begged of him that he would not destroy her house...
...He died within the Temple, and he died standing there as he stood overlooking the work...
...I will go and bring samur to this substance that shuts off my young ones from me, and I will split it as I split the rocks of the mountain...
...She returned and she laid something down upon the sheet of glass that covered the nest...
...He shouted as he went through Solomon's city, making his way to his cavern in the earth...
...And then, as the Temple was almost finished Solomon, the king, died...
...Then the moor-hen said to herself—"Am I not Naggar Tura, the mountain-carver...
...uerba labris abeunt, per pectus miserum manat subido mihi sudor...
...Again Solomon pondered, and he thought upon a way by which the moor-hen might be forced to give the substance samur to his men...
...She went upon the high mountains with it, laying the substance upon the rocks, so that they were split open, and seeds that the winds and the birds carried might grow in the openings...
...This is the fire of love—no force except Venus, its goddess, Ever can make it go out—ever can drown its light...
...Then he fell and broke his leg...
...Furiously and still more furiously he worked, raising greater and greater stones...
...She tried to feed them, but she could not bring food to their mouths on account of the cunning substance that men had made and that Benaiah had placed between her and her nest...
...He rushed out of the Temple...
...And the people of Solomon's city hid themselves as they heard the noise of his shouting that was like the noise of the storm...
...Even the wild wailing wind is unable this light to extinguish, Even the white sudden rain, showering down from the sky...
...But sweat seeps through my heart, unhappy and burning with passion...
...Her little ones raised their heads to her...
...And the moor-hen, despairing at having broken her oath to the Lord of Earth, slew herself at the bottom of the mountain...
...But it was granted to Solomon that for a while Sokar would not know that he was dead...
...Benaiah went up into the mountains...
...Benaiah took it within the beak of one of the little moor-hens and brought it to King Solomon...
...Come, for the flame which now burns in our heart is enough...
...Now at this time, the Temple was all but built, and only a few stones remained to be put upon it...
...Then Sokar, that one day he might be free from the labor of carrying stones for the building of the Temple, told Kjing Solomon how the substance samur might be obtained...
...And the moor-hen had sworn to the Lord of Earth that she would never let men have samur...
...Then Benaiah raised a great shout, and the moor-hen, frightened, fled...
...quid faculum praefers, Phileros, qua nil opus nobisf ibimus, hoc lucet pectore flamina satis, istam non potis est uis saeua exstinguere uenti, aut imber caelo candid us praecipitans...
...As he went on he kicked over the great trees and high buildings with his feet...
...This was samur, the substance that was the size of a barleycorn and that cut through substances that iron could not cut through...
...Pamphila, when I try to tell you the love that I bear you— What is the use when you're gone...
...From Valerius Aedituus dicere quum conor curam tibi, Pamphila, cordis: quid mi abs te quaeram...
...He ran to the nest and found a substance laid upon the glass that was cutting into the glass...
...So, being silent, I burn—doubly, therefore, I die...
...sic tacitus, subidus: duplo ideo pereo...
...He won back to his cavern...
...And then, on the fourth day, the ants, who are also the servants of the Lord of Earth, came upon the floor of the Temple, and climbed up upon the staff that held.dead Solomon upright, and ate into the staff...
...But Sokar, laughing, kicked it over...
...She hurried away, and Benaiah watched her nest...
...You and I do not need one...
...He called upon Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he sent him upon this other quest, telling him how, to his mind, the moor-hen might be forced to let samur pass into the possession of men...
...at contra hunc iffnem Veneris, nisi si Venus ipsa, nullast quae possit uis alia opprimere...
...Words will not come to my lips...
...Translation of John Sherry Mangak...
Vol. 2 • September 1925 • No. 21
