Cleopatra
Hideo Yokokawa
.

 Jessica Helen Lopez

　

(1)  Life holds death in it, while
     death holds life in it as well.

In the remotest land of Greece,
when Ptolemaios was pushed out of
the darkness of Erebus to this world
with his clenching fists,

he was instantly wrapped by
the diffused reflection of the refracted light
flooded in the Aegean Sea;
pure, seven colored, dazzling and painful.
He opened his fists.

he aimed at the direction of brilliancy,
which has been at the southeast
far beyond the Aegean Sea, where

the sunbeams were vividly falling
      dancing,
             fluttering,
                   bending,
      collapsing,
            bursting,
                breaking,
                   glittering,
             twisting,
         stagnating,
      scattering.

The light was vividly sparkling.

His fleet sailed towards that brilliant light, finally to reach the rich
land of Egypt, where he established his dynasty, which continued
there for 3 centuries, with Cleopatra as the last descendant
magnificently decorating the dynastic  collapse.

(2)  O Cleopatra, descendant of Erebus,
     you will see both light and darkness.

Under the glaring sunbeams,
in the heavy blowing of scheme and maneuver,
the flashes glittered and the soft winds passed
over her voluptuous garden twice;

the first soft breeze from Gnaeus,
the second sweet wind from Caesar.

In the chaos when Caesar returned to Erebus suddenly,
no tears appeared in her face in front of her people.
She was already the acknowledged Queen
of the great Ptolemaios Dynasty.

In memory of Caesar,
     she quietly ordered her wisest ministers
            to build a strong vessel with
                  a gold stern,
                      silver oars,
            edges adorned by jewels,
        deck covered by mother-of-pearl and
sails of thick scarlet silk.

At night, in Tarsos; where
the troop of Antonius was stationed;
she appeared standing on the gold stern of the vessel,
dressed in with milky yellow.

Lit by numerous fires and fireworks far and near,
with music mysteriously welling up from nowhere,
her figure stood out from the darkness behind.

"You may come over here in front of me"
her voice sounded to him like the one from the heaven
with the clear strange rhythm like a lyre.

When he kneeled and kissed her hand,
his eyes met her eyes.

Sparkle. Flame. Blaze.
In an instant,
their eyes shot fires in the carnal desires.

Plucking the pearl ring from her finger,
he smashed it in his mouth and
swallowed it with wine of blood red.
poured into a crystal cup.

When they stood side by side, they were shrouded by a mysterious
shaft of light. It was like a dispersion of the  rainbow fallen on the
ground. The people became intoxicated with the mist of light.

(3)  O Cleopatra, you must be torn to pieces
     by the light and darkness.

In Rome, the sky was heavily dark, and the scheming and maneuvering
were flowing in whirls, deeply embroiling the mainstay of Alexandria
cunningly. The sea of Actium, where the fleets of battleships of Rome
and  Alexandria were facing each other, was heavy lead.

The orders of Antonius, the greatly capable commander of naval battle,
did not work at all. Suddenly, the main squadron seceded the ocean
battle and circled round to the front of the Roman fleet against
Antonius. -- Jealousy and strategy of Augustus.

The darkish wind from Rome wholly covered the battle ocean.
On the other hand, in the direction of the east,
a huge clear rainbow spanned the sky
between Aegean Sea and Alexandria.

"There is neither heaven nor hell, Cleopatra,
you are to aim at the direction where the light comes.
You will reach eternity."

from nowhere sounded the voice of Ptolemaios
and gently shrouded Cleopatra who was on her vessel.

(4)  Infinity contains the infinitesimal, while
      the infinitesimal contains infinity. as well.

Antonius, fatally injured, was in the arms of Cleopatra. They were
shrouded by the misty shafts of light, in which no words were
necessary. They jointly owned the space in which their emotions
and logic needing thousands of words for communication were
mutually transferred at once　far exceeding the region of language.
The misty shaft covered the whole palace.  When his finger weakly
shivered trying to indicate something, a lady's maid brought the
 deep  blue liquid in the crystal cup from which he had once  
swallowed the pearl with red wine at their first meeting. Her grand
mother's voice gently sounded.

"O my beloved grand daughter, Cleopatra,
it is a secret medicine transmitted by
our Dynasty from the ancient time.
Share and drink it with Antonius.
I saw your presence of this day clearly
when you were born."

The sunbeams fell brilliantly,
       danced,
            fluttered,
               bent,
       collapsed,
            burst,
                broke,
     glittered,
          twisted,
     stagnated,
          scattered.

Thhe light was vividly living.
The two of them became the light itself, and
it diffused into a spiral activity
dissolving in the everlasting movement.

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