Gurney's Victory Song
Who can forget the stirring tale
Of Duke Leto the Just and his gal-lant men!
Broke the blockade of Beakkal and the Sardaukar there,
Led his forces to Ix and righted a wrong.
Now I say to you and listen well,
Let no one doubt his words or his vow:
Free-dom . . . and jus-tice . . . for all!
Gurney's Song
Orchards and vineyards,
And full breasted houris,
And a cup overflowing before me.
Why do I babble of battles,
And mountains reduced to dust?
Why do I feel these tears?
Heavens stand open
And scatter their riches;
My hands need but gather their wealth.
Why do I think of an ambush,
And poison in molten cup?
Why do I feel my years?
Love's arms beckon
With their naked delights,
And Eden's promise of ecstasies.
Why do I remember the stars,
Dream of old transgressions…
And why do I sleep with fears?
Halleck's Song
Our fathers ate manna in the desert,
In the burning places we whirlwinds came.
Lord, save us from that horrible land!
Save us…Oh-H-H-H, save us
From the dry and thirsty land.
…For I am like an owl of the desert, O!
Aiyah! Am like an owl of the des-ert!
…While beasts of the desert do hunt there.
Waiting for the innocents to past.
Oh-h-h, temp not the gods of the desert,
Less you seek a lonely epitaph…
Gurney's Evensong
This clear time of seem ambers-
A gold-bright suns lost in the first dusk.
What frenzy senses, desp'rate musk
Our consort of rememb'ring.
Night's pearl-censored requi-em…
'tis for us!
What joys run, then-
Bright in your eyes-
What flower-spangled amores
Pull at our hearts…what flower-spangled amores
Fill our desires.
Gurney Halleck's Tune
Beneath the hill where the fox runs lightly,
A dappled sun shines brightly
Where my one love's still.
Beneath the hill in the fennel break
I spy my love who can not wake.
He hides in a grave
Beneath the hill.
The Flaming Dames
The Galacian girls do it for pearls,
And the Arrakeen for water!
But if you desire dames like consuming flames,
Try a Caladanin daughter!
On crustacea Three they play for free,
And on Giedi Prime for spinach!
But on Tuplie's morass with its Jovian mass,
It's e'er a fight to the finish!
The Chusukians long for pretty song,
Grummans succmb for knowledge!
And you learn on Gamont what so e'er you want,
Better by far than in college!
But of all my stops none of them tops
That fair Caladan daughter!
Tears in our eyes, we made our goodbyes
Then I promtly forgot her!
Untitled
Lost on Giedi's waste, lost in the wind's breath,
Wounded by beasts and vines and blows and care,
Waste world, Giedi, giving only pain and death,
Pain and death, pain and death; but I bare,
Though nights and days mix, slip, blend,
I bare, as blood dries and hearts rend.
Sleep blesses; my nightmares now my days,
Days pace year-long where I live and cannot die;
Where I die and cannot live, lost in ways
Past help and hope, in the dark I lie.
But I bare, bare and wait. It comes; I wait
for joys of home or the thrills of hate.
Untitled
We toil all day, the Harkonnen way,
Hour after hour, we long for a shower,
Just workin' and workin' and workin' . . .
Sung in a local Giedi Prime tarvern.
O Giedi Prime! (The Emperor's Eye)
O Giedi Prime!
Thy shades of black are beyond compare,
From obsidian planes to oily seas,
To the darkest nights in the Emperor's Eye.
Come ye from far and wide
To see what we hide in our hearts and minds,
To share our bounty
And lift a pixax or two . . .
Making it all lovelier than before.
O Giedi Prime!
Thy shades of black are beyond compare,
From obsidian planes to oily seas,
To the darkest nights in the Emperor's Eye.
Sung in a local Giedi Prime tarvern.
Untitled
We work in the fields, we work in the towns,
and this is our lot in life.
For the rivers are wide, and the valleys are low,
and the Baron-he is fat.
We live with no joy, we die wihout grief,
and this is our lot in life.
For the mountains are high, and the oceans are deep,
and the Baron-he is fat.
Our sisters are stolen, our sons are crushed,
our parents forget, and our neighbors pretend-
and this is our lot in life!
For our labor is hard, and our rest is short,
while the Baron grows fat from us.
Sung in a local Giedi Prime tarvern.
Beast Rabban
Rabban, Rabban, the blustering brute,
No brain in his head but rooten fruit.
His muscles, his brawn
Make a thinking man yawn.
Without the Baron, he's destitue!
Sung in the Giedi Prime mines.
Untitled
O for the days of times long past,
Touch sweet nestar to my lips once more.
Fond memories to taste and feel . . .
The smiles and kisses of delight
And innocence and hope.
But all I see are veils and tears
And the murky, drowning depths
Of pain and toil and hopelessness.
It's wiser, my friend, to look another way,
Into the light, and not the dark.
Sung on Salusa Secundus among the outlaw band led by Dominic Vernius.
A Toast Among Outlaws
Oh, cup of spice
To carry me
Beyond my flesh,
To a distant star.
Melange, they call it-
Melange! Melange!
Sung on Salusa Secundus among the outlaw band led by Dominic Vernius.
Review, Friends-Troops Long Past Review
Review, friends-troops long past review,
All to fate a wieght of pains and dollars.
Their spirit's wear our silver collars.
Review, friends-troops long past review:
Each a dot of time without pretence or guile.
With them passes the lure of fortune.
Review, friends-troops long past review.
When our time ends on its rictus smile,
We'll pass the lure of fortune.
Poem for Sad Times
I remeber salt smoke from a beach fire
And shadows under the pines-
Solid, clean . . . fixed-
Seagulls perched at the tip of land,
White upon green . . .
And a wind comes through the pines
To sway the shadows;
The seagulls spread their wings,
Lift
And fill the sky with screeches.
And I hear the wind
Blowing across our beach,
And the surf,
And I see that out fire
Has scorched the seaweed.
Ancient Religious Quotation Often Quoted by Gruney Halleck
For they shall suck the abundance of the seas and of the treasure in the sand.