Ever-lasting Lyre (4 scenes)
A play in verse on Orpheus
Video of Scenes 1&2:
Ever-lasting
Lyre -Orpheus-Scenes 1&2 (A play in verse) - YouTube
Text of Scene 1
(Day. Grove of Whispering Ferns on an islet
made by two streams near a beach in Thrace. Sage Cigogne, the old King of
Storks converses with Orpheus in Bird Speak. Other rare birds, and smaller
animals are listening to them).
Sage Cigogne:
I implore you, Orpheus do not go,
Covert intentions I can smell from a mile.
Stay in your country with us awhile
All their cards these gods don’t show.
Orpheus:
It’s my duty to go and protect.
Do you know what an honour it will be?
All these heroes to accompany.
Wishes of the gods, how can’t I respect?
In any facts are your qualms grounded.
Sage Cigogne:
Be careful, of traps some gods might set.
(The Royal Blue Nightingale and the Silver
Albatross lead the tweets in agreement with Sage Cigogne).
Orpheus:
With misgivings, don’t let your heart
Be filled, or doubts bubble unfounded.
Text of Scene 2:
(Day. Grove of Whispering Ferns near a
beach in Thrace. The Royal Blue Nightingale who’d witnessed the scene, reports
to Sage Cigogne, the Silver Albatross, and other birds, and animals).
Royal Blue Nightingale:
The Argo asked Orpheus to play
His lyre to chart its wondrous way
Before it would leave the sheltered bay,
To make it budge, or make it sway.
He helped entertain the heroes tough,
He helped them mourn, he helped them cry,
He could persuade the Argo to fly,
His song could calm even waves quite rough.
(Sage Cigogne asks the Royal Blue
Nightingale and the Silver Albatross to accompany Orpheus, and to send word
back to him through other birds from time to time).
Video of Scene 3:
Ever-Lasting
Lyre-Orpheus (A play in verse)-3 - YouTube
Text
of Scene 3
(Day. Shore of Colchis. The Royal Blue
Nightingale is singing, memorizing it’s own record of Orpheus’s journey, which
only other birds can understand. It’s telling this tale to the Silver Albatross
who’d stayed behind to keep an eye on the Argo, and a flock of sea gulls,
charging them to fly back to Sage Cigogne to tell him this glorious tale).
Royal Blue Nightingale:
At last when they approached the Golden
Fleece,
All the brave heroes were quite stumped,
With disappointment, Jason was dumb,
For a monstrous snake guarded the trees.
None was there who could fight,
Such a huge monster long and coiled.
In Aietes’s intrigues they’d gotten embroiled,
They were forced in a corner tight.
Defeated, they couldn’t go back to Greece
Only Orpheus and Jason, Medea took.
Cautious, they hid in a nearby nook,
Without the bard, they’d get no Fleece.
When Orpheus played his soothing tunes,
The monster’s eyes closed one by one,
As sleepy magic his melodies spun.
Serpent could have slept for many moons.
The reptile stirred, but Orpheus played,
Jason sprang forth and Fleece cut down,
All serpent could do was but frown.
In sleep’s hold the monster stayed.
As heroes cheered, said Argo with glee,
‘My faith in your skills are proven right
Orpheus, you overcome with no fight’.
Escaping, they made their way to the sea.
Video of Scene 4:
Ever-lasting
Lyre-Orpheus (A play in verse)-4 - YouTube
Text
of Scene 4:
(Day. The Grove of the Golden Fleece. The Royal Blue
Nightingale is watching the sleeping Colchian Dragon covertly. The Colchian Dragon
starts to wake up, and feels a burning sensation in many patches of its long
body).
Colchian Dragon:
Ouch, oh, ouch, what burns my skin?
Where’s my Fleece, and who are you?
(The Stymphalian Birds have been sent by the gods to spray
down a poisonous white powder, so that the Colchian Dragon
would be dissolved. Since the Stymphalian Birds have beaks of bronze, the
powder doesn’t affect them).
Stymphalian Birds
It’s far away now, with the Argo’s crew.
Quiet snake! Don’t make such a din!
You deserve an end that’s inglorious.
Colchian Dragon:
Why are you burning my body so long?
Stymphalian Birds:
In scheme of gods, you have done wrong,
You couldn’t even kill weak Orpheus.
Colchian Dragon:
You too couldn’t drown the magical Argo,
Though you flew round and round.
Oh, I keep my ear to the ground
About your secret mission, I too know.
So stop spraying that poisonous powder!
Stymphalian Birds:
You couldn’t resist his sleeping spell.
Colchian Dragon:
On the past we needn’t dwell.
Stymphalian Birds:
None will save you, do shout louder!
You were supposed to kill silly bard,
So with the Fleece could Jason flee.
Colchian Dragon:
Stop a bit! Just listen to my pleas!
Ouch! These sprays lance like shards.
You couldn’t kill bard, or his lyre take;
In your quest you all have failed,
Why have you been so easily bailed?
Stymphalian Birds (flying away towards the sea, in pursuit of
the Argo):
We can still make Orpheus quake,
But of no use are you anymore,
Now you’ll rot to your core!
(The Colchian Dragon dies an agonizing death, as its long
body gets burned by the poisonous powder. The Royal Blue Nightingale sets off
in pursuit of the Stymphalian Birds, but soon loses sight of them, as they can
fly much faster and higher than real birds. It hitches a ride with the Silver Albatross, waiting for it on the shore. They try to find the
Argo, asking for its whereabouts to every bird they meet).
Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Columbia Journal, The New Verse News, London Grip, Classical Poetry Society, spillwords, Poetry24, Dissident Voice, and The Peacock Journal. Her fiction has received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train Review, and has been published in Coldnoon Journal, Szirine, apertura, Entropy, and ensemble (in French). She has read her fiction/poems in India, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, England, Ireland, the US, and at CoNZealand.
Her creative non-fiction has appeared in Literary Yard, countercurrents.org, Litro, impspired, pendemic.ie, Gnarled Oak, Kashmir Times, and A Beautiful Space. Her 100+ articles (on art, theatre, film, and humanitarian issues) have appeared in English and French. An independent scholar, Sultana Raza has presented many papers related to Romanticism (Keats) and Fantasy (Tolkien) in international conferences.
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