Multimatept - BYO2023 - non-writer

In yonder vast and fathomless expanse
a tale whisper'd to me a lurking dread profound,
where great reason trembles 'neath this ghastly sight
and twisted dreams may haunt their hapless sleep.

Cursed secrets whisper'd from dimensions unfound
and cruel monsters, malignant beings from stars shuddered,
their spectral shadows 'pon our souls imprent
to tresspass us to the Stygian shore.

Yet e'er in silence does the cosmos weep
this dread mythology midst haunted ruins,
along the Mare Nostrum shore I tread
singing a praising hymn to Carcosa.

a reply to: Warpstone

Very Lovecraftian!

S+F

I love stuff like this!

a reply to: Warpstone

The soul is a funny thing in not knowing the 'terrain' and an; Ankh is just a cobblers bench tool... For shoes made out of reeds... Perhaps telling the Dragon at the shore a joke about cats brings forgiveness of harvesting them? Meaning: Cat-Tails.

Nice story and I don't see why the jade emperor ever decided to let a race run through his heart full of animals to begin with other than to test his fearlessness.

a reply to: Warpstone

Are you Lewis Carrol reborn? I loved the cadence of your prose. Beautiful.

An ode to a fictitious city, and those who DARE to wander its streets, fearless, eyes shifting and every vigilant of the shadows.

a reply to: Warpstone

I love it.

Thank you for sharing!

a reply to: Warpstone

Wow! Amazing! Thank you for this!

a reply to: Warpstone

On another note, I think your signature looks neat; Even though it just says: Illiad tablet

originally posted by: crowf00t
a reply to: Warpstone

On another note, I think your signature looks neat; Even though it just says: Illiad tablet

I was searching the interwebs for a sumerian version of the phrase "we're all stories in the end" and the best result I could find was from the webpage linked below.

One of the closest transliteration of 𒂕𒀀 𒄑𒈦𒁰𒈨𒂗𒉈𒂗 is Egira mashdaramenden which in english is something like "we are inscriptions in the end".

Surmerian for "we are all stories in the end"

This is a tricky one to translate into Sumerian because there is no exact word for “story” I know of in the language, nor for similar terms like “tale”, “myth”, “epic” etc. The closest match is dub 𒁾 “tablet”, which by extension means “book, text, piece of writing”. Alternatively, mashdara 𒄑𒈦𒁰 means “inscription”, and could work here to try to match the meaning - that in the end, we remain as inscriptions or tales rather than physical beings.

“End” is egir 𒂕, so “in the end” would be locative egira 𒂕𒀀. Putting it together with -menden, the “we” form of the verb “to be”, we get Egira dubmenden 𒂕𒀀 𒁾𒈨𒂗𒉈𒂗 “we are writing(s) in the end” or Egira mashdaramenden 𒂕𒀀 𒄑𒈦𒁰𒈨𒂗𒉈𒂗 “we are inscriptions in the end.” (”All” is tough to convey in Sumerian without a separate head noun, which would require a stilted translation like “We are all of the people who become inscriptions in the end”, so I’ve left it out.)

A blog of conversational Sumerian

a reply to: Warpstone

Very good, Warpstone. Refreshing to see new styles of writing coming into the contest.

a reply to: Warpstone

I was going to say how much that put me in mind of Lovecraft, but I can see others had that idea first

Teally well put together that and it works on that little reptile bit of my brain to make me feel the tiny sting of fear at the unknown vastness of existence.

Thank you to you all who S&F and for the encouraging replies.