The Secret of the Vodyonoi

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Let us visit the 
Vodyonoi of the Volga,
And of his silver secrets learn,
How to wax with the moon,
And wane with the moon
And into fishes turn.

Of cold, emerald magics 
Glinting and glowing
In rivers of ancient water;
The moss mantled giant,
Of death so defiant,
The old man of the sea
And of slaughter.

Come delve into deepness,
The weed harboured masses
Of rocks in their tortured formations;
Come swim with no sleepness,
Dive deep in crevasses - 
Exhale all your known exclamations!

Drink of Vodyonoi vomit
And toil at his terrors,
Be a slave of malignant emotion;
Drown again and again,
As a million men,
All in one and at once, as an ocean.

Each Vodyonoi lives 
In his palace of gold,
In his palace of silver and glass,
And there you will vanish,
All life he will banish,
Forever all sky and all grass.

Why risk such a seeking,
Such senseless sensation,
Best leave such a creature forgotten,
Untouched and unthought of,
Unlearnt and untaught of,
A horror so ripe and so rotten.

But there lies the secret, 
Still swimming in silence,
The answer to many men's meaning;
In those lamp eyes of ruby,
That beacon out to me,
The secret of life for the gleaning.

Now to visit the Vodyonoi
And plunder his palace,
Of glass and of silver and gold;
Now to reach to his riches,
Avoiding his witches
And live ever more, never old!

For there in the towering,
Deepening darkness,
Below and so low beyond feeling,
In the dank, darksome night,
There burning bright,
In his palace, is life for the stealing.

Yea, this shape changing creature
Of fishy putrescence,
Each day by life-light lies basking,
From a beauteous gem,
A power doth stem,
The power of life for the asking.

Above are the waters
All reaching to brightness,
Below are the blankets of murk,
Enwrapping and trapping,
All darkness untapping,
Surrounding the Vodyonoi's work.

So sink like a stone.
Like a watery comet,
As you plummet unto his abode;
And come to his dwelling,
Where his palace is swelling
As a bubble about to explode.

Now you rupture and capture,
With ravishing rapture,
The rays of his magical stone,
And you find it and bind it,
Unwrap and unwind it,
And shine it as yours - yours alone!

See how it dazzles 
In radiant glory,
The souls of a million suns,
It flames and it scorches,
As a billion torches,
See how it stounds and it stuns.

The Vodyonoi wanders
Afar for his feasting,
So now is the time for your thieving;
Depart with his heart,
With this spirit now start,
Return to the life you were leaving.

Oh meaningless mortal,
Diabolic damnation,
So cold and so cruel and so clever;
Your mind is a mountain,
An igneous fountain,
That flows with a force that's forever.

Your skin is a shimmer,
A shaping, a shower
Of glistening scales, green and golden,
Your shape, no more ape,
But as fish you now gape,
As Vodyonoi you're now beholden.

No use is your struggle,
Your futile frustration,
No more are you mortal or man;
Now eternity's yours,
Take your hollow encores,
As only a Vodyonoi can.

So such is the secret
Of monstrous vocation,
The power of life is all lost,
The flower of loving,
The fortune of living,
The garden of gaining,
The pleasure of giving -
Eternal death is the cost!

SoRoL

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Note on the Legend of the Vodyonoi

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A Vodyonoi was a fearsome water creature that lived in the lakes and rivers of Russia and other eastern european lands. No one knew exactly what a Vodyonoi looked like, because it could change its shape. It might appear as a huge fish, covered with moss and weeds, or as an old man with a long green beard, or as a man with glowing red eyes and with paws instead of hands!
Each Vodyonoi lived beneath the water in a palace made of gold and silver and glass. The palace was lighted by a magic stone that glowed more brightly than the sun. A Vodyonoi would stay in its palace during the day and would only come out at night to move about in the water and silently seek for its next unsuspecting victim. These creatures were very dangerous to humans. If a Vodyonoi caught anyone bathing or swimming, or even just standing near the water's edge, it would pull the person into the water to drown. A drowned person then became a Vodyonoi's slave forever it was thought, for a Vodyonoi did not die! Every month, when the moon waxed from a thin sliver to a full circle, the Vodyonoi would grow older and stronger, but in the second half of the month, when the moon waned back to a mere sliver again, it became younger and weaker! The truth about the Vodyonoi, is now, at last, revealed! 

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