Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz
Way out West they had a name
For Wind and Rain and Fyre.
The Rain is Tess, the Fyre's Jove
And they call the Wind Mariah.
In Bible days they had three names
For monsters fierce and dire
They needed them to take the blame
For spawning muck and mire.
The air's a mess, the land's aflame
And the seas are rising higher
Who takes the blame for all this mess?
Yea, punishment doth require.
Azazel took the blame before
(Not sacrificial pyre)
Kids wander lonely in a fog
And listen to the wire.
Leviathan stirs the seas awash
Behemoth rakes the mire
The air above is fogged by Ziz
So says our vexed town crier.
What shall we make of monsters three
Of wind and land and water
Their names are known, but not their bones
Let's unspell them for your daughter.
For Wind and Rain and Fyre.
The Rain is Tess, the Fyre's Jove
And they call the Wind Mariah.
In Bible days they had three names
For monsters fierce and dire
They needed them to take the blame
For spawning muck and mire.
 |
| Leviathan, Behemoth and Ziz |
And the seas are rising higher
Who takes the blame for all this mess?
Yea, punishment doth require.
Azazel took the blame before
(Not sacrificial pyre)
Kids wander lonely in a fog
And listen to the wire.
Leviathan stirs the seas awash
Behemoth rakes the mire
The air above is fogged by Ziz
So says our vexed town crier.
What shall we make of monsters three
Of wind and land and water
Their names are known, but not their bones
Let's unspell them for your daughter.
They Call the Wind Mariah
posted by Moulton | 12:00 PM
14 Comments:
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I spent some time looking up Ziz.
There is one explanation that the name comes from the Hebrew word, Zeh (this or that), suggesting vacillation or zigzagging, with no clear direction.
That etymology also connects to the "crooked serpent" characterization of Leviathan (from Isaiah). The Hebrew word for "crooked" in that passage is today used to describe a railroad switch-track or switch-yard. The connection to bending (going around the bend or the turning a corner) is also suggested (as is "coiling"). That would be in contrast to a graceful curve (or "fair curve" as the term in used in shipbuilding).
The grazing animal (Behemoth) also meanders aimlessly in the manner of a drunkard's walk, with no clear purpose other than to eat and bulk up.
I have found no etymology for Behemoth other than "beast" (which is how the word is used in modern Hebrew, just as Leviathan is now the modern Hebrew word for whale).
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Drunkward's Walk, Brownian Motion, Diffusion, and the Weiner Process are all synonyms for the same mathematical model. MIT Mathematician, Norbert Weiner, did the most work on it, so it bears his name in the modern technical literature.
Regarding the saying, "You are what you eat," I suppose the Eucharist is a suggestion to eat that which is Becoming, rather than to poison one's soul with that which is Unbecoming.
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Hrmm. To the best of my recollection, I've never dreamed of eating or taking drugs.
Mostly my dreams are novel angles at solving problems that have been on my mind.
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I'm not sure why Tim erased his comments, but they are cached here.
Now cached here.
Tom Hartley has crafted a comparable poem ...
"Prologue"
Once giants roamed our world and tamed the beasts
Wrought tools and tech that transformed brutish lives
Now genius vast in all our hands resides
But in each mind a fearsome Tyger feasts
What now that hellish plagues and poisons spread?
And weapons grave hang o'er the heads of kings
In halls of dark despair the poor fool sings
While courtiers of philosophy lay dead
♤
No hero bold will save us from our plight
The path defies the stoutest of all steeds
A host, an army of the best just might
Gain headway 'gainst collective past misdeeds
Make sense of human serpentine insight
And champion the best of all our creeds
_________
Across the land great Error venom blots
Old towers fall to babble from the scribes
New ramparts rise dividing up all tribes
Walls engineered for games of sums and noughts
Among the peasants fighting all 'gainst all
Fat Ogres reap the ripened golden grain
Proud legacy defenders vie in vain
Their herald's trumpeting doth Chaos call
♧
The god of Mars fires rockets over head
Mechanicals beat ploughshares into swords
Blind Morpheus tempts heroes to play dead
While Alchemists of fate concoct grim hordes
What power Venus had to stop the hate
Confusion now has severed all love's cords
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