Drift of Time,

by J. W. Cassandra

The "Drift of Time" is the ninth poem of the cycle Book of Stars of my first volume, Eternity Awakened to Self-Awareness. This poem depicts with the veil of stars, and with the stars reflected on the lake, what is covered by the mist of the past. Yesterday is fleeting, appears in time merely as a drift or sediment, which at the same time is burdened with secrets. In the moment, the future appears only as an already unraveled graveyard of time, which suggests hopelessness. This is reinforced by the personification of starry sorrow and the drifting song, which reach their peak in the orphan soul. In the third line of the first stanza, the exhortation still touches the face, with forward-pointing harmonics. However, the last line of the last stanza identifies the same image with complete and utter hopelessness. The two types of mood emphasize the extremity of the time-graveyard: what is projected into time inevitably orphaned and destroyed. Still, the starwater image offers some hope: whoever reaches the stars will be saved from the time graveyard.

The wind ripples the water of the lake in the night –
A star-veil trembles in its soft mirror.
Wash your face in the starwater,
Weave your beautiful veil out of mirage!

Let a veil cover fine peaches, and cream complexion,
Let oblivion cover time of your existence,
What you want to know, behold, find it
In the rippling starry mirror of the lake!

A cluster of stars swarms in the night,
In its sparkling, golden-fired light
It makes see the sun, the fugitive yesterday,
What the wind ripples, the mirror of the lake floats.

Fugitive yesterday is the drift of time,
The hidden secret of a veil-woven past.
Every moment shows a forthcoming,
A time cemetery unraveled from the past.

All time flows in the flood of a lough,
All its veils are woven with star sorrow;
On the mirror of the lake the wind blows a song:
Bathe your orphan soul in starwater!

Written:20 / 02. 2011., by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 05 / 08. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra

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