The Rain and the Shadow

She was the Shadow, born to forever live in the dark...He was the Rain, forever loved by the light. They fell in love and the world was torn apart. 'Tis the tale of their tragedy.

 

The Rain and the Shadow

                      

I

 

I stood staring at the sky,

Wondering at the splendid sight,

I watched as the world erupted in fire and storm,

I gazed at the sky with my mouth agape

Until a little child beside me spake:

‘The Rain answers the Shadow’s call.’

 

I tilted my head staring at the little girl,

Wondering where she had learned such words,

She gazed up at me with those dark depths,

Blue, silver and golden

Shone those large orbs;

They were the prophets of the storm.

 

‘There was a child

Born in the dark palace

Born to the Lord of Darkness was she.

The youngest daughter of Nyx and Erebos,

They named her Inanna,

The Goddess of Shadows she was forever to be.

 

She was the daughter of darkness,

And darkness were her locks.

They said her eyes were deadly

But beautiful beyond words.

The shadows hailed her

As they flocked to welcome their queen.’

 

The child spoke on to me

And the world and Time did stop

To listen to that quiet voice,

That told the tale unspoken.

I had things to do, places to be,

And yet, I listened enraptured, unmoved.

 

‘As the glorious sun rose that day,

In his house was heard the cry of a babe.

And his tears fell from the sky,

Quenching the thirst of the burning earthly plane,

He was named Tlaloc by the Trinity,

The harbinger of rain and thunder was he.

 

And so were born Rain and Shadow,

Children born among gods light and dark.

And so was born their friendship,

An ethereal fairy thread of joy.

They learnt to walk together,

Neither could be seen without the other.

 

The great Trinity hath then created the spirit of Earth,

Shamash was promised Gaia for his son,

It hath been written in the stars---

Gaia and Tlaloc were destined to wed;

And though he was never hers,

Tlaloc was the name Inanna learnt to speak the first.’

 

The pain in her voice pained me,

And tears did roll down my face;

The sky did still thunder in rage.

But the world and Time had all stopped

To listen to that quiet voice

That told the tale unspoken.

 

 

II

 

‘Over the millennia life did emerge,

And Gaia grew young.

Rain and storm nurtured the living

While the Shadow thrived in the night.

Inanna of the dark and Tlaloc of the light

Were friends inseperable.

 

Tlaloc and Inanna played among the clouds

Each day, their bond grew stronger

Until they couldn’t live without the other.

Artemis had often warned Inanna,

There was nothing the Light could give her,

But she never did heed the counsel of the huntress.

 

One day she took him to the Castle of Lunitari

And there she showed him,

The splendid mortal world below.

Below the mist and cloud there was

A world of hunters, of passion and instinct,

The world of the ferocious and brave.

 

The earth was carpeted with the verdure green

In the light of the glorious day

Sparkled the pure waters of the streams

It was a world beautiful

A world of life and mortal love,

It was a world full of hope and pity.

 

It was a sight beautiful---

Of splendour and sheer joy,

Of hope that Universe still did grace us.

And yet, none of it did Tlaloc see

For he was captured by the smile

That graced Inanna’s face.

 

It was there that he first told her,

That he loved the stars that sparkled in her locks,

That he loved the eyes that warmed only for him,

That he loved the voice that sang for him,

That he loved her and the darkness she was.

 

They stood there in each other’s embrace,

Knowing that their love was forbidden.

And yet, they met each day,

In the Castle of Artemis.

And under the stars in the mortal plane,

They did descend every night.

 

They laughed and sang,

They talked in the rain,

And each morning the human kind woke,

To find in the sky a rainbow�"

Seven colours of light and rain,

Seven colours of their love.

 

Their days were filled with longing,

Their nights under the clouded sky glorious.’

The child once again looked at me,

Her eyes were the harpers of death.

‘Until one night Erebos found of them,

And their world burst into fire and storm.’

 

 

III

 

‘And so the feud between the light and dark raged anew.

Wars were fought in the kingdom of heaven,

And wars befell the children of Earth

As they suffered amidst the battles fought

In the name of Tlaloc and Inanna

And their love forbidden.

 

Floods washed away the cities

Of the Children of the Dark,

And plagues wiped the populace

Of creatures happy and Light.

Death and destruction played a deadly game

On the earthly plane.

 

Gaia wept for her love unrecruited,

She wept for she had grown thinking

That Tlaloc had forever been hers.

And Inanna sat each day

By the window of the Castle of Lunitari

Reliving memories both bitter and sweet.

 

Nyx, the Goddess of the Night, sang softly

As she stood by her daughter,

Her tears mingled with the stars

In her daughter’s locks, as they watched

The World they had created

Rage in fire and hate.

 

Tlaloc, who had remained silent

Could bear the hatred no longer.

So, he sent rains terrible

To wipe away the wars tyrannous.

For forty days and forty nights

Did it rain in the mortal world.

 

And when Shamash once again

Emerged from the skiey curtains,

A world devastated did he find below.

Death and destruction with their claws

Had engulfed everything within,

And the mortal world stood dead still.

 

And then, thunder and lightning

Split the sky of Nirvana and Tartaros alike.

From the glow both dark and light

Emerged the mighty Trinity�"

The Almighty, Universe and Chaos stood together

And their wrath did all gods fear.

 

She cursed Tlaloc and Inanna,

She cursed their love

She cursed Inanna into the mortal world

Where she could Tlaloc never more touch.

And his punishment was to watch her born

Among mortals beautiful, only die again.’

 

 

IV

 

I stood stunned as the voice stopped,

The voice that held so much pain.

I wondered at the sorrow

That gnawed at me,

And wondered at the tears

That wet my face.

 

I looked up at the clouds

As the first drops of rain

Fell on the salty trails.

I wondered if it was true,

This tale so strange

And if Tlaloc and Inanna did exist.

 

The child spoke again,

Her eyes shone with tears unshed.

‘And so they lived on,

Living their cursed lives.

They bore the pain

That was theirs to bear.

 

Unable to learn to hate,

Unable to love

Tlaloc and Inanna lived their cursed lives.

And she was born,

Only to die again.’

 

I watched in wonder

As the raindrop fell through her hand

And never did touch her.

Only then did I realize,

As I watched her,

That rain could not touch her.

 

I realized in wonder:

It wasn’t raindrops

That shone in her dark locks.

The tiny silver particles

Were in truth,

The jewels of the night sky.

 

The tiny hands hammered away

On the invisible barrier before her,

And I did see the tears

That flowed from those glorious orbs;

Those I saw now,

Were nothing but wells of sorrow.

 

I looked beyond the rainy barrier,

That enveloped her but never did touch her,

And gasped as I watched transfixed;

For the blue eyed boy

On the other side of the watery wall

Was Tlaloc himself.

 

I ran, ran away from them

And never did see them again.

But each night in the dark,

I hear the shadow’s call

And the thunder and the storm.

And the whispers of the Shadow and the Rain.

 

 

--- Tanvi Jha.