La cave linguistique de Tolkien

Markirya

Man cenuva fána cirya
métima hrestallo círa,
i fairi néce
ringa súmaryasse
ve maiwi yaimie ?

Man tiruva fána cirya,
wilwarin wilwa,
ear-celumessen
rámainen elvie
ear falastala,
winga hlápula
rámar sisílala,
cále fifírula ?

Man hlaruva rávea súre
ve tauri lillassie,
ninqui carcar yarra
isilme ilcalasse,
isilme pícalasse,
isilme lantalasse
ve loicolícuma;
raumo nurrua,
undume rúma ?

Man cenuva lumbor ahosta
Menel acúna
ruxal' ambonnar,
ear amortala,
undume hácala,
enwina lúme
elenillor pella
talta-taltala
atalantea mindonnar ?

Man tiruva rácina cirya
ondolisse morne
nu fanyare rúcina,
anar púrea tihta
axor ilcalannar
métim' auresse ?

Man cenuva métim' andúne?

Who shall see a white ship
from the final beach steering,
the vague phantoms
in her cold bosom
like gulls wailing?

Who shall heed a white ship
like a butterfly fluttering,
in the flowing sea
on star-like wings,
the sea foaming,
the foam flying in the wind,
the wings shining white,
the light slowly fading?

Who shall hear the roaring wind
like the many leaves of the forests,
the white rocks growling
in the gleaming moonlight,
in the dwindling moonlight,
in the falling moonlight
like a corpse-candle;
the storm grumble,
the abyss move?

Who shall see the clouds assemble,
the Heavens bending
upon crumbling hills,
the sea heaving,
the abyss yawning,
the old darkness
from beyond the stars
sliding down and collapsing
upon lofty ruined towers?

Who shall heed a broken ship
on the many black rocks
under shattered skies,
a discoloured sun blinking
on bones gleaming
in the last down?

Who shall see the last evening?

"Markirya" is a name often given to our longest Quenya text from Tolkien's hand. Il is a highly transformed version of poems written in Qenya tens of years before. These bear the title of Oilima Markirya "The Last Ark" ; the last form presented here has no title. The word oilima does not seem to be valid any longer at that stage, in its stead métima is found; on the other hand Markirya is made of the elements mar "dwelling, home" and cirya "ship" well attested in Quenya, and so could be valid even at that time; consequently this poem is often called "Markirya", an apocryphal but convenient title. There are two versions; the second was published as an addition to the essay A Secret Vice in the collection The Monsters and the Critics, with the differences of the first version, Tolkien's last corrections and a glossary.

Here we give the second version with Tolkien's ultimate corrections. We edited the spelling to adapt it to the uses of The Lord of the Rings, save the diaeresis that we utterly removed (it is but a purely graphic sign to help English speakers to get a correct pronunciation). We adopted the usual correction in the first line of men into man and fáne into fána: crosschecking with other Quenya sources allows to make sure these are indeed typographical errors. The English version was reconstituted by Édouard Kloczko after Tolkien's translation of the first Qenya version and the vocabulary of the glossary.

Quotations of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, Édouard Kloczko, Christopher Gilson, Patrick Wynne, Rhona Beare, Thomas Alan Shippey, Charles Kennedy, Elaine Treharne, André Crépin, Régis Boyer, François-Xavier Dillmann, Gabriel Rebourcet, Keith Bosley, Pierre-Yves Lambert, Gwyn Jones, Thomas Jones are under the copyright of their publishers.