Ficlets

Ficlet dump.

Title: and my fingernails are long enough
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Arthur/Morgana
Rating: NC-17
Summary: 'I'm not your dog,' he tells her.

A/N: Modern AU, for the kinkme_merlin prompt: 'Arthur/Morgana - stepsibling AU where Arthur's father marries Morgana's mother. ( rest of it under cut )

, originally posted here; 516 words.

Please be warned about the step-siblings part.

( fetch )

Title: to honour you with shells and coloured bottles
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Gwen/Morgana/Lancelot
Rating: NC-17
Summary: It seems like a good idea at the time.

A/N: Modern AU, for the kinkme_merlin prompt 'Gwen/Lancelot/Morgana, falling in sync', ( rest of it under cut )

', originally posted here; 650 words.


( it seems like a good idea at the time )

Note: Titles are from Leonard Cohen, Song of Patience.

there are other sorrows

A friend posted a couple of lines from one of my favourite Faiz ghazals today on Facebook: 'Aur bhi gham hain zamane mein muhabbat ke siwa/ Rahatein aur bhi hain wasl ki rahat ke siwa.' I remember the first time I read this couplet, in a newspaper article somewhere; how it haunted me for days before I was able to find the entire text of the poem. I went looking for translations today and I found this one by Agha Shahid Ali:

Don't Ask Me for That Love Again

*

That which then was ours, my love,
don't ask me for that love again.
The world then was gold, burnished with light –
and only because of you. That's what I had believed.
How could one weep for sorrows other than yours?
How could one have any sorrow but the one you gave?
So what were these protests, these rumours of injustice?
A glimpse of your face was evidence of springtime.
The sky, whenever I looked, was nothing but your eyes.
If you'd fall into my arms, Fate would be helpless.


All this I'd thought, all this I'd believed.
But there were other sorrows, comforts other than love.
The rich had cast their spell on history:
dark centuries had been embroidered on brocades and silks.
Bitter threads began to unravel before me
as I went into alleys and in open markets
saw bodies plastered with ash, bathed in blood.
I saw them sold and bought, again and again.
This too deserves attention. I can't help but look back
when I return from those alleys – what should one do?
And you are still so ravishing – what should I do?
There are other sorrows in this world,
comforts other than love.
Don't ask me, my love, for that love again.

*

It's a good translation, although the shimmering, lyrical grace of the Urdu is quite lost in the process. I went around looking for other translations. This one, for instance, translates the couplet as 'Other pains exist than those that love brings,/Other joys than those of lovers' mingling,' which doesn't work for me. This one does, 'If these images also seize my eye / even though your beauty still enthralls, / it's because there are sorrows other than heartache, / joys other than love's rapture,' which is even further removed from the succinct beauty of the lines. Then I looked around for VG Kiernan's - the most celebrated Faiz translator out there - versions of the same poem, but the internets failed me.

There are other sorrows in this world,
comforts other than love.

I suppose this one will have to do.