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Language:
Quenya
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Published:
2024-08-13
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320
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1/1
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My love is tall like a mallorn-tree

Summary:

A poem I originally posted as an interlude in "Woman of Secret Shadow". There's too much Quenyan linguistics in that one already, so I decided to separate this. Yes, I used to write poems in the Elven languages. This is a love song Fanian used to sing to Nurtalessen when they were still happy together in Aman. Here you have first the English, then the Quenyan, then a word-to-word translation of the Quenyan with explanations and other boring linguistic stuff. Apparently I can't choose more than one language for a work, so I chose Quenya for this one.

Work Text:

My love is tall like a mallorn-tree
My love is dark and slender
Her hair is a veil woven out of night
Her scent is a dream of passion

My love is fair of face and hand
My love is wise and fearless
Her voice is the whisper of the wind
Her touch is both flames and feathers

My love on her wings is raised up high
To dance for me through the air
Her kiss on my tongue is the taste of mead
Her eyes know all my secrets.

---

Meldanya ná halla ve malinornë
Meldanya ná morë ar taina
Findessërya ná fana lómëllo vaira
Nísinërya ná irmëlor

Meldanya ná vanya mi hroarya ninquë
Meldanya ná nolma ar meletya
Ómarya ná necá hlonë súrëva
Márya ná náror óar quessër

Meldanya rámainenrya ná ortatára
An círa nin ter vilya
Lambarya lambanyanna ná tyávë miruvóreva
Tirërya nóles ilya fanaítanya

---

(The use of the symbol / is here: meaning/secondary meaning.)

love-my is tall like mallorn-tree
love-my is dark and slender*
head-of-hair-her is veil night-of woven
fragrance-her is desire-dream

love-my is fair in body-her pale/white
love-my is wise and mighty/noble
voice-her is faint sound wind-of
hand-her is flames both-and feathers

love-my wings-on-her is lifted-high
to/towards sail (for) me** in-the sky
tongue-her tongue-mine-on is taste mead-of***
gaze-her knows all veil-flash-my****

*'taina' is actually old Sindarin but it sounds like it could be Quenya as well; I found no other word for slender/slim/thin/narrow
**this line should read either 'towards me...' or 'for me...'
***Tolkien had no word for kiss! I did my best...
****fanian makes a pun on her name here: for secrets she chooses a word that means: 'what I let be glimpsed beyond my veil' - veil meaning here her physical shape. It is no accident that she uses the same word earlier to state that 'her hair is a veil woven out of night'... an ill omen perhaps?