The Silver Selkie Sutra
written by Omar Ozymandias Otter (O3)
translated by Emmanuel Trabajore
annotated by Antryg Windrose
edited by Rt. Rev. Ric Carter
The Holy Words of the Great Otter and the Silver Selkie and their divine carnivore kin are recorded in ancient myth and sone, on crumbling manuscripts written on vellum from the skin of sacrificed mer-lambs, upon crystals and crumb-cakes and all media that withstand the ravages of time, save for cellulose discs.
Study carefully the otter songs. These words have power and mystery, magic and odor, scansion and meaning.
But much is hidden within them, much that need be properly read and analyzed and interpreted. Those hidden truths are brought out in the Mustelid-Pinniped Doctrines. To see the corresponding Doctrine, click on the number at the beginning of each discrete verse below.
CONTENTS:
- Sutra: Let Us Now Praise Famous Seals
- Sutra: We Wishes For The Pelts Of Heaven
- Sutra: chorus from SCROC IN CALEDONIA
- Addendum: The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
- Addendum: Muskrat Love
- Observed: The Sutra, The Rapture, The End
- Text of the Doctrines
- Back to t'CotO index
- Back to GO! index
1 Let us now praise famous seals,
and our otters that begat us.
2 The Great Otter hath wrought great glory by them
through SCROC's great power from the beginning.
3 Such as sea-bears did rule in their kingdoms,
entities renowned for their power,
giving counsel by their understanding,
and declaring prophecies;
4 Leaders of the otters by their counsels,
and by their knowledge of learning
meet for the populace, wise and eloquent
are their instructions;
5 Such as found out musical tunes,
and recited verses in writing;
6 Rich seals furnished with ability,
living peaceably in their habitations;
7 All these were honoured in their generations,
and were the glory of their times;
their great times, and short times, and lesser times.
8 There be of them, that have left a name
behind them, that their praises might be reported.
9 And some there be, which have no memorial;
who are perished, as though they
had never been; and are become as though
they had never been born;
and their cubs and bairns after them.
10 But these were merciful carnivores,
whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.
11 With their seed shall continually remain
a good inheritance, and their children are
within the covenant.
12 Their seed standeth fast,
and their children for their sakes.
13 Their seed shall remain for ever,
and their glory shall not be blotted out.
14 Their bodies are buried in peace;
but their name liveth for evermore.
15 The clans will tell of their wisdom,
and the watery nation will shew forth their praise.
1 Had we the heavens' manicured pelts,
Enmeshed with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark pelts
Of night and light and the half-light,
2 We would spread the pelts under our feet:
But we, being poor, have only our dreams;
We have spread our dreams under our feet;
Tread softly because we tread on our dreams.
3 Once out of nature we shall never take
Our bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as alien metalsmiths make
Of hammered tin and crystal enamelling
4 To keep a drowsy Walrus awake;
Or set upon the golden kelp to sing
To seals and otters of Lemuria
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
5 Does the imagination dwell the most
Upon an otter won or otter lost?
If on the lost, admit we turned aside
From a great labyrinth out of pride,
6 Cowardice, some silly over-subtle thought
Or anything called conscience once;
And that if memory recur, the sun's
Under eclipse and the day blotted out.
1 Before the mutation of years,
There came to the slaking of man
Time, with the gift of tears,
Grief, with an otter that ran;
2 Pleasure, with pain for leaven;
Summer, with otters that fell;
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And giant squids risen from hell;
3 Strength without hands to smite;
Love that maneuvers for breath;
Night, the scramble of light,
And life, the scramble of death.
4 And the high gods took in hand
Fire, and the tolling of tears,
And a minting of silicon sand
From under the feet of the DeBeers;
5 And gyre and drift of the sea;
And dust of the labouring earth;
And egregores to be
In the condos of death and of birth;
6 And grew with weeping and laughter,
And fashioned with software and love,
With life before and after
And taxes behind and above,
7 For a day and a night and an otter,
That his strength might endure for a span
With travail and heavy water,
The hypertext spirit of man.
8 From the jet streams of north and south
They subducted as unto strife;
They frenched upon his mouth,
They filled his body with life;
9 Eyesight and speech they bought
For the cost of the soul therein,
A time for overwrought thought,
A time to stew and to sin;
10 They cast him light in his ways,
And love, and a space for delight,
And beauty and limited of days,
And dancing, and sleep in the night.
11 His speech is a burning fire;
With his lips he insulteth;
His heart fills with squid desire,
In his eyes foreknowledge of death;
12 He weaves, and is clothed with synthetics;
Farts, and won't apologize;
His life is a crutch or prosthetics
Between the dead and the wise.
1 An earthly nourris sits and sings
And as she sings, "Ba lilly wean
Little ken I, my bairns father
Far less the land that he steps in."
2 Then in steps he to her bed fit
And a gromly guest I'm sure was he
Sang "Here am I, thy bairns father"
Although I be not comely
3 I am a man upon the land
And I am a silkie in the sea
And when I'm far and far from land
My home it is in Sule Skerry"
4 Ah, tis not well, the maiden cried
Ah, tis not well, alas cried she
That the Great Silkie from Sule Skerry
Should have come and brought a bairn to me
5 Then he has taken a purse of gold
And he has laid it on her knee
Saying, git to me, my little young son
And take me up thy nouriss-fee.
6 It shall come to pass on a summer's day
When the sun shines hot on every stone
That I shall take my little young son
And teach him for to swim the foam
7 And thou shalt marry a proud gunner
And a proud gunner I'm sure he'll be
And the very first shot that ever he'll shoot
he'll kill both my young son and me.
8 Alas, Alas, the maiden cried
This weary fate's been laid for me
And then she said and then she said
I'll bury me in Sule Skerry.
SUTRA ADDENDUM B
MUSKRAT LOVE * (Willis Alan Ramsey)
1 Muskrat, muskrat candlelight
Doin' the town and doin' it right
In the evenin', it's pretty pleasin'
2 Muskrat Susie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug out in the muskrat land
And they shimmy and Sammy's so skinny
3 {Refrain}
And they whirled and they twirled and they tangoed
Singin' and jinglin' the jango
Floatin' like the heavens above
It looks like muskrat love
4 Nibblin' on bacon, chewin' on cheese
Sammy says to Susie, "honey, would you please
Be my missus," and she says yes with her kisses
5 And now he's ticklin' her fancy, rubbin' her toes
Muzzle to muzzle now, anything goes
As they wiggle and Sue starts to giggle
{Refrain}
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