David W Solomons' Music Site

Translation by Diana Maynard
Hour Zero
I am Akhenaten
your faithful cat
from the distant land of the Pharoahs.
Sacred guardian of ancient tombs
I bend the bow of my back
and leap low o'er the moat
and I come to protect your sleep
from the pallid idols of Hecate
from the circuit of ghosts.
Hour Zero.
In the moonlit whirlpool,
in circles of sorcery,
you are caught.
Your gaze clouded discerns me
from within your age,
the fog of smoke,
the cloud of death
trichlorophenyl hexachlorophenyl
dioxin.
I am your faithful cat
Akhenaten
motionless frosted agate
illuminates the crystal of my eyes.
And I succour you with my seven lives
I send my gaze into your gaze,
vertical I nail it like a dagger,
and as ice slides into your marrow...
Hour Zero
I fathom with my seven lives
the abyss of human terror.

Wait still.
Wait until I melt all the metal
from the sarcophagus.
At Hour Zero
I prepare the antidote
for my seven poisoned lives
for the one and eternal:
your own.
Wait still.
Wait a little,
for my coldness
to rise up to your heart.

Melissanthi Songs For Alto and Guitar. Published by Musik Fabrik. (mfdws021v)
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Melissanthi - Hour Zero