From Egypt came one
Sent by Seshat and Thoth
With a book of song
And wisdom of the past
Into the land of Cush
When the flooding soon grew near
To save all knowledge
A book was sent to each land –
And to Al-Naash one
Passing over Al Jadi.
Of Al-Naash we know little
His name is now lost
Al Jadi slew him in wrath,
Envy and lust.
Al Jadi: navigator,
Leader of people
Across the wide deserts
Through mountains and woods,
Snubbed by great Thoth
For his lustful haughty ways.
Al Jadi was proud
And loved Al-Naash’s wife
Envied him his sons
And his quiet wisdom.
The messenger came
From out of now lost Khem,
Bringing the missive
To Al-Naash in his hut
But Al Jadi’s spies
Brought the news to their lord.
Al Jadi went to Naash,
He raved and he threatened –
Al Jadi killed him
And stole the wisdom of Thoth!
Saddened sweet Seshat –
For she in her omniscience
Knew of the crime –
Ordered the skies to open.
All men may now see
The funeral bier passing
Al-Naash’s loved ones
Follow close behind mourning
Alkaid with Mizar
Alioth covered in ashes
And off from the rest
Al Jadi is alone
A guide cut off from glory.
Look at the stars
On a clear frosty night
A tragedy
For all wanderers to see
A wise man’s passing
© G.s.k. ‘14
♦
Looking for more information about the story behind the Arabic tale of Al Naash and the Constellation of the Bear, that was presented by Jen for this week’s Tale Weaver’s Prompt, I Googled “Al Nash and Al Jadi – Constellation of the Bear” and came upon a group on Yahoo – Language of Cosmic Love, A to Z. I used some of the mythology that I found there to create this choka – I’m using the short – long – short form of choka instead of following syllables.
Linked to: Tale Weaver’s Prompt and BJ’s Shadorma & Beyond both found on Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie.
Beautifully done Georgia you have done well to explore the story as you did.
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Thanks Micheal .. i don’t think I was able to get many real answers, but it helped me to write a story. Thanks for reading 🙂
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Nicely done — and very connected to the “Me” of “Om mani padme hum” too —!
I like how you’ve merged known mythology with this unknown, hinted-at mythology of Al Na’ash. Plus, we get a preview of the choka! 😀
Very nicely done! 🙂
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Cool .. I hadn’t thought about the ‘me’ of the mantra, but you’re right about that! I didn’t know where to go with the prompt, i don’t usually write for the Tale Weaver prompt .. I’m not into mythology – but I wanted to do it as I’d also read about it when we did the haiku for Ursa Major. Then there was the choka prompt which is dedicated to story telling .. so I set down this morning and started doing a quick (really quick) research and invented you a myth. Glad you liked it.
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Too bad you couldn’t find more details though. It’s got to be out there — but I can’t find it either. Lost in time perhaps? 😦 The Yahoo link was very interesting though.
Glad you gave the TW a shot — not a huge response so far, but it’s the weekend. And writing re: mythology is difficult. You did it so well though. 😉
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Thanks .. actually there was a lot of stuff that came up on my google search, but I just didn’t look at it … try to follow the search I did using my search words in the post … there were even PDF files etc. but as usual I was in a hurry and grabbed at this one because I saw Seshat …
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Will do —
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J … I just posted at Ronovan and didn’t see your ping … I don’t think it carried over or I’m on the wrong page … December 7th post.
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Hmmm…. I’ll have to check it. I did it way back on Monday or so …..
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Yup, I’m there — the Van Gogh one. 🙂
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Darn … did I post on the wrong place? Did you see my comments?
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I see that you linked two of them to “Climb and heavens” —
http://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/ronovanwrites-weekly-photography-haiku-rewind-21climbheavens/
But this week was “spin and wheels”
http://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/ronovanwrites-weekly-photography-haiku-challenge-22-spinwheels/
I did that Van Gogh one early in the week —
Perhaps you should link one (or both) of them to spin/ wheels — he’d understand…..
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I got everything confused ..thanks for the right link
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He’ll understand, though —!
So many prompts – cool prompts! – but it gets difficult to keep straight.
Hugs!
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Does it ever!
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I like this. Some more history about the stars in the sky. I like that bit “sweet Seshat –
For she in her omniscience Knew of the crime – Ordered the skies to open.” That tells us how the people got there. – I enjoyed looking her up.
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Couldn’t resist using the Atlantis stuff from Yahoo when I saw Seshat was mentioned … one of Bastet’s many names 😉 – Glad you enjoyed the choka … but outside of the basics from the prompt, there’s only fantasy here, no history!
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Ah,…I thought there was some name connection.
As the name was similar 😉
But I didn’t see anything about Bastet in the Wiki post.
A fine character Goddess everything in one is Seshat/Bastet 🙂
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And please let’s not forget Sekhmet who becomes irritated if she’s forgotten and Bast …. 😉
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Oh do forgive your uniformed servant
gracious Sekhment and Bast ~
My most humble bowing to your generous spirits.
*sigh so much to learn*
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lol … I always had so much fun with my pseudonyms … even wrote some posts about them …. it’s the At The Akashic Library cat.
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Ah… I’ll have to look into that 😉
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Nice form of Choka, and thanks for sharing story with us in a beautiful manner 🙂
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Thanks Aura! Glad you enjoyed the Choka.
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