Verily does his work cause folk to rave
Even to the far reaches of the East
Now l his archery artifice is known
Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken
Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued
Including rights and established ways therin
Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and
Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani
Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII
Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII
Word count 77
BLOG - GOLB
Hua Meilan tapped me right before Roses with this last minute scroll for Les Beltaines.
Knowing that this scroll was going to be translated into French, I agonized over what form to choose. I only took Spanish, but that was all the way back in junior high, so I don’t even have memories to help me.
I ran a gauntlet of styles to try. Working with alliteration was out because I had no idea whether the translated words would work correctly. Anything with counted syllables was out for the same reason.
In the end I decided to go with an acrostic poem, a form in use since ancient Greece. In period, the national anthem of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is an acrostic which dates back to 1557.
Like the long-ago King of the Netherlands I chose to write the recipient’s name down the left side, one letter beginning every sentence. I made the scroll a double acrostic - making sure the letter that began the sentence was repeated somewhere in the last word.
Sven Kaldvind, in reverence before Us
Verily does his work cause folk to rave
Even to the far reaches of the East
Now l his archery artifice is known
Keeping care of equipment, maintenance and marshaling ken
Acclaim is his with silver wheel accrued
Including rights and established ways therin
Demon King Ryouko'jin, of the Three Heavens and
Indrakshi, Our glorious Rani
Note now on June 18 A.S. LVII
Done this day at Les Beltaines XXXIII
My hope is that even if the acrostic nature of the poem is lost in translation, this will still read like a standard Charter/writ based scroll and the recipient will enjoy it.
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