The waxing face ascends
One day, in the beginning, Gilliat saw the Octopus approaching;
"Do you seek mercy?" Gilliat asked. "Why have you come to me?"
"No," said the creeping malice, clothed in darkness,
"I propose a contest; Let us see who can create the most beautiful thing."
"Let it be so", said Gilliat. "Here is the challenge then," said the Octopus;
"I will take your work, transform it. And in response,
You will make something beautiful from what I offer you;
Each of us will breathe our genius
Upon the thing provided by the other.
"Very well. Say what you need and I will bring it," said Gilliat.
"The horse's head and the deer's horns."
"Here, take it." The hesitant monster, enveloped in mist,
Replied: "I would prefer the antelope's."
"Go, take it then." And the Octopus entered his lair and began to forge.
Then it raised its head. "Is it finished already?"
"No." "Do you need anything else?" asked Gilliat.
"The elephant's eyes, the bull's neck."
"Here, take it." "I also ask," added the Creeping One, "The chancre's belly, the serpent's rings,
The camel's thighs, the ostrich's feet." --Take.--
Just as one hears the bee in the hive,
In the depths, one could hear the comings and goings,
The demon stirring iron anvils.
No eye could see through the murk
What it was doing deep in the unknown cavern.
Suddenly, turning toward Gilliat, the Octopus screamed,
"Give me the colour gold." "Take it.", said Gilliat
And, growling and groaning like a slaughtered ox,
The dark foe resumed its hammering in its forge;
It struck with the chisel, the pestle, the mallet,
And the whole horrible grotto trembled;
The flash of the hammer summoned tempests;
Its burning eyes like dual embers;
Roaring; fire raged from its nostrils,
With sound like the clamour of great waters
In the darkening season when the stork migrates.
Gilliat said: "What more do you need?" "The tiger's leap."
"Take it." "Very well," said the Octopus, standing in its volcano.
"Come help me blow," it said to the hurricane.
The hearth blazed; the Octopus, sweating profusely,
Bent and writhed, and beneath the dark vaults,
Nothing could be seen but a somber redness
Discolouring the profile of the monstrous forger.
And the hurricane helped, being a devil itself.
Gilliat, speaking from above, said,
"What more do you want?"—And the great outcast,
Raising its enormous, sorrowful head, cried out to him:
"The breast of the lion, the wings of the eagle."
And so Gilliat cast down, deep into the abyss,
To the craftsman of pride and rebellion,
The wing of the eagle with the breast of the lion.
And the demon resumed his work beneath the veils.
"What abomination is it conjuring?" the stars wondered.
And the world waited, grave, anxious, gaping,
For the colossus this giant was about to bring forth.
Suddenly, in the ghostly night, one heard,
Like a final effort, a last gasp; the eruption,
The cursed blacksmith’s rusty workshop,
Blazed; the ceiling of hell split open,
And, in a pale and supernatural light,
The locust emerged, sprung from the evil hand.
And this terrifying cripple, this lame winged creature,
It saw its creation and was not ashamed,
Monstrosity being the way of shadow.
The Octopus emerged, halfway to eternal ruin,
And, crossing its limbs, arrogant, sneering,
Cried up: "Now try to do better than me!"
And the deceitful one, then setting a trap for Gilliat,
Added: "You gave me the elephant and the ostrich,
And gold to gild all; the finest of the camel,
The horse, the lion, the bull, the tiger,
The antelope, the eagle and the snake;
It is my turn to provide the material for your work;
Here is all I have. I give it to you. Take it.”
Gilliat, for whom even the wicked are spared grace,
Extended his grateful hand, bathed in virtue,
Towards the shadow, and the demon gave him a spider.
And Gilliat took the spider and placed it in the midst
Of the void that was not yet formed;
And his spirit gazed upon this beast; its pupil,
Where a formidable eternal light poured forth;
The monster, seeming so small, a tiny black dot,
Began to grow larger, and was suddenly enormous to behold;
And Gilliat looked upon it with his tranquil eye;
A strange dawn wandering over its vile form;
Its hideous belly became a luminous globe;
And the legs, changing their knots into spheres of gold,
Stretching out in the shadows, great rays of flame.
The Octopus raised his eyes; and suddenly the infamous one,
Dazzled, bowed beneath the crimson sky;
For Gilliat, from the spider, had made the sun.
Deputy Gilliat,
Legend of the Age
Vale