Баллады (английский)

Из последней апоездки в Цех Арфистов я привезла несколько старинных текстов баллад.
Здесь они в своем оригинальном написании.

[Некоторые баллады были написаны уже после окончания Седьмого Прохождения, но я позволю себе немного отступить от хронологического порядка]

The Golden Egg of Faranth

By the Golden Egg of Faranth,
By the Weyrwoman, wise and true,
Breed a flight of Bronze and Brown wings,
Breed a flight of Green and Blue,
Breed riders, strong and daring,
Dragon-loving, born as hatched,
Flight of hundreds soaring skyward,
Man and dragon fuily matched.

By the teaching of the Harpers,
Healer, fisherman and smith,
From the chambers of the craft-halls,
Forge our destiny in myth.
Raise a glass in praise of weavers,
Give the Lord Holders their due,
And in all thing trust the weyrfolk
For their cause is just and true.
From the distant, burning Red Star,
Shining strands of silver Thread –
Heed the warning f the Star Stones;
Hear the whispers of the dead.
Hail the dragons and their riders,
Perched on high in lofty weyrs.
Watch the skies while Pern lies sleeping;
Learn the lessons of the years.

March Of The Wings

Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,
Harper, strike, and solder, go.
Fee the flame and sear the grasses
Till the dawning Red Star passes.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.

Dragonman avoid excess
Greed with bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

Lessa’s Ride

Black, blacker, blackest,
And cold beyond all frozen things.
Where is between when there is naught
To life but fragile dragon wings?

Cold as death, death-bearing
Stay and die, unguided.
Brave and braving, linger –
This way was twice decided.

A fleck of red in a cold night sky.
A drop of blood to guide them by.
Turn away, Turn away, Turn be gun.
A Red Star leads the riders on.

How shell the last the long journey
Lurd on but by this woven star?
How can the find that which they seek
And make their way home from afar?

What can the say to bring forward
The weyrfolk from another time?
Is hope merely illusion
That clings to life in desperate minds?

Yet promise lives by those of heart –
Salvation lies within the song,
Revealed by Lessa, Weyrwoman,
There will be five weyrs strong!

The Question Song

Gone away, gone ahead,
Echoes away, gone unansweréd.
Empty, open, dusty, dead.
Why have all the Weyrfolk fled?

Where have dragons gone together?
Leaving Weyrs to wind and weather?
Setting heardbeasts free of tether?
Gone, our safeguards, gone, but whither?
Have they flown to some new Weyr
Where cruel Thread some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr?

Fire Lizard Song

The little queen, all golden
Flew at the sea.
To keep it back,
To turn it back
She flew forth bravely.

As she attacked the sea in rage
A holderman came nigh
Along the sand
Fishnet in hand
And saw the queen midsky.

He stared at her in wonder
For often he'd been told
That such as she
Could never be
Who hovered there, bright gold.

He saw her plight and quickly
He looked up the cliff he faced
And saw a cave
Above the wave
In which her eggs he placed.

The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.