Vashnarian Songbook
By: Gani Posted on: March 22, 2004
The first page in the booklet, My Mother Were a Flute and My Father Were a Pipe,
is a traditional bard's ditty, handed down through the generations of their
music-loving village.
REFRAIN:
My mother were a flute and my father were a pipe
And I were born a mere sweet song
They'd play together through the night
And that is how I came along
My father's song were crude and tough
And why my piping's edge be rough
My father's song were fair but loud
And why I'll be not eas'ly cowed
REFRAIN
My mother's song were slipp'ry high
And brings fair memory in my eye
My mother's song were golden pure
I try to keep my pipes so sure
REFRAIN
Our house were always music fair
We breathed in melody with air
A joyous note together they'd play
Tunes made up mine every day
REFRAIN
The next several pages are filled with instrumental dance tunes. One of the
best known is a jig popular among warriors, My Trousers Decayed and Lawks Does
This Fieldplate Itch. The tune is rather fast, and the dance that typically
accompanies it is so fast as to appear twitchy to the uninformed observer.
The next song in the booklet is a ballad to be sung by a young lass. This
particular culture, as their bardly leanings would indicate, appear to have a
great reverence of Scarlatti, to whom we an assume this ballad is addressed,
based on the descriptions.
In great throngs of men, I notice none but His face
My body responds, and I am frozen
And when He goes, He leaves no mortal trace
For He seeks the One whom He has chosen
The most wondrous of His smiles is intended not for me
Yet when I gaze at Him, that smile is a portal
To planes not yet named, yes, when I peer through I see
I am standing at the brink of the immortal
I'll pretend She exists not, while I give voice to my song
For it aches my heart to watch Her snub Him so
It is in His endless arms that a Vashnar lass belongs
And I hate to watch Him chase Her through limbo
His hair is long and blonde, and it falls in a thick braid
Wisps dance about His head in the wind
My heart leaps to my throat, and my love will not be swayed
I stand as still as if here I've been pinned
When He stands among us, He slouches like a human
His wings are folded back with feathers creased
And yet charisma shows He is more than any true man
My love of Him can be no more than caprice
He kissed me once, perhaps He's kissed me many times
The very thought covers me in perspiration
All of my longing sings itself in simple rhymes
Forever He will be my inspiration
The last song in the booklet is a children's rhyme, intended to encourage
children to follow the bard's way of life.
With B begins the beauty of song
To bring with you all the days long
A allows the andante's beat
To give to a tune the traveller's feet
R raises rhythm and sires rhyme
Transferring music from numbers to time
D is the delight of the ditty and dirge
Two more airs with the power to surge