Aug. 10th, 2022

Kimiko

Aug. 10th, 2022 12:55 pm
sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (Default)

If there is a short story more fine-tuned to my disposition than Lafcadio Hearn's Kimiko, I have not come across it. At once joyful and sad, I highly recommend it.

It can be found on Project Gutenberg: the first story in this collection or the last story in this one.

sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (Default)

Who indeed, I suppose, could give greater voice to the changing of the guard than the Lyrist Himself?

Aye, if ye bear it, if ye endure to know
That Delphi's self with all things gone must go,
Hear with strong heart the unfaltering song divine
Peal from the laurelled porch and shadowy shrine.
High in Jove's home the battling winds are torn,
From battling winds the bolts of Jove are born;
These as he will on trees and towers he flings,
And quells the heart of lions or of kings;
A thousand crags those flying flames confound,
A thousand navies in the deep are drowned,
And ocean's roaring billows, cloven apart,
Bear the bright death to Amphitrite's heart.
And thus, even thus, on some long-destined day,
Shall Delphi's beauty shrivel and burn away,—
Shall Delphi's fame and fane from earth expire
At that bright bidding of celestial fire.

(Apollo, as quoted by Porphyry, as quoted by Eusebius, and as translated Frederic William Henry Myers)

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