| I cannot say what they believed |
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| Written by Adam Aitken | |
| Saturday, 14 October 2006 | |
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I cannot say what they believed:
Having past the line of the 1st Meridian The conquistadors may have been surprised By a town of half-wits, as it was chronicled. Though it was said by the wise indigenous, as they watched Those drunken interlopers loitering and pissing in their streets Soiling their fabulous uniforms, that the half-wits were Really the conquistadors.  But what would I know?If in a storm, to cast a Conquistador’s ring into the ocean Or better still a slave, the ocean became calm I cannot say. Whether the earth was flat - Or that the Conquistadors burned in Hell for their past sins Or that their belief would uphold the eternity of the world Or that they knew of punishment and the guilt of their sins Or that they told strange stories of certain anchorites Or that Angels were corporeal Or what prodigies were invited to behold the birth of their Man-God Or that conspiring to be God One would be given the gift of much knowledge Or that, in the Eighth Habitation A fire would burn but consume no flesh of a true saint - I cannot say. I cannot say what they believed. That if one native desires the meat of another native’s beast The Mohammedan or a Chinaman must do its killing That a fish with its head torn off for frying by a holy man Who having eaten its head throws its body back to the lake - To say that broken fish would live and prosper all the happier For its sacrifice, I cannot say. I cannot say what they believed, That there on the borders of Pegu Gold paves the top of a mountain That in the temple of Nakorn Pathom Lie the relics and bones of Sommonokodhom That upon a patch of velvet in a crystal box lies a precious emerald That’s guaranteed to turn any idiot into an Emperor I cannot say. If I could say that it was true, If the liquor, once forbidden, would intoxicate the priests all the more Or that fasting on a holy day made one holy Or to labour on that day of rest Was no labour at all, If it could be said it would be said. That it would be said if it could be said That the Conquistadors authorised their religion by false oracles That the Chief of Conquistadors had said Some lowly scribe had lied to save the borders of their precious nation, And lied again, That their pompous messages were accidents Of ornate untruth and eloquent misquotation. If this were true I cannot say. Adam Aitken |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 October 2006 ) |
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