Keeping the Fire: Poems of Djasho

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Leaves thick as blades of grass in gold Shagga field,

Trunks hard as the stone of old Kharna mountain,

Roots deep as winding caves below pure Altaena,

I have never seen the woods before today.

I have taken liberties with the translation and in the process lost the syllables of the last line, which is a shame but our Eddinite has not single word for “Viewing for the first time” as does the Djashar. This is as certain a style of Djasho as we can hope to find. Her work is always characterized by a intense love of nature. Of the five great Poets of Westa, she is always called “Djasho, Who Knew True Wonder.” Again, Eddinite fails us, for we don't consider wonder an emotion in quite the same way. For us, wonder is a state of being, not an emotion like fear, love, or anger. It is something that you participate in, or something accompanying events. The Westins see it much differently.

Astute readers will also catch the references in this Poem to places in Free Westa. Shagga Field below Fortress Westa, old Kharna mountain, thought to be the Bearded Mountain before it erupted and lost it's peak, and Lake Altaena famous for the sacred caves below it's temples. All of these places were new discoveries to the migrating Onea tribes that would one day become the Westins. They came out of bondage, out of fear and persecution, out of starvation and constant struggle, into a land that seemed endlessly giving, endlessly new. It is no surprise, perhaps, that they would see Wonder as an emotion rather than a sate of being. In our lives filled with maps, borders, and understanding we have little room for mystery, little appreciation for endless spaces. We have traded this child like joy for our jaded understanding. Such is the price of civilization.

-Caltius Bun Daemonstae, from his work:

Regarding the Style and Meter of the Westin Poet Called Djasho in the Eddinite Tongue, and Comprising of Several Poems in Translation to the Eddinite for the First Time.

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