The Killing War, Poetry by Character Amel, Okal Rel Universe

introduction

A fragment of an early, lengthy epic poem, inspired by descriptions of the Killing War found in the Ameron Biography while Amel was a teenage courtesan. Written in English as a private effort, and translated into Gelack doggeral in court dialect for sharing with Den Eva's novices, such as those to whom he is seen romaticizing Reetions in the novel Courtesan Prince.

In its Gelack form, this poem survived in the memories of the Den Eva novices, much to Amel's discomfort due to the rather simple, sing-song Demish form in which it was cast in translation from the English.

The English fragment, below, wound up on Monitum with Eva when she retired there as Di Mon's lyka.

The Killing War

Bodies fertilize the fields that no man ploughs
with shrivelled hands now black, once brown

Their laser'd hills, exploded towns, a vengence
to make honor proud. Cracked stations dance,
pods spilling souls. A harvest for the lust of cold.

Life has lost the Killing War.

No crop, no gain, no docks to load the season's
yield, charred as Reetion bone. They could not
swallow anyhow, who drank space raw or living drowned
in the blood of their throats, in space lanes fouled.

Nothing mocks and Lost Souls howl and honor
shuns the battleground.

commentary

During the Killing War, pre-arbitorial Rire and Ameron's mother Ava-Trenseel, clashed in a conflict which became increasingly "no holds barred" as each side violated what the other held sacred. It ended in with the conquest of Killing Reach by Gelion and the assassination of Ava-Trenseel, also. Ameron's belief, explained in the Ameron Biography, was that the two cultures were mutually corrosive to one another. The Americ treaty, therefore, sealed (politically) the jump between them.

The 'fields' of the poem fragment are on the planet Barmi II (later home to the Purple Alliance of Perry D'Aur), which were damaged by an okal'a'ni space strike by Gelacks. Barmi was occupied by Reetion settlers at the time, hence the reference to hands "once brown".

Those killed "in space lanes fouled" are victims of Reetion "anti-Sevolite" tactics like those re-invented by Ann, on Kali Station, in the novel Far Arena.

Page last updated: 11-Oct-2003

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