As The Clear Lights Filtered Through The Windows

A Final Fantasy IX-inspired poem

Summary:

A poem written by Princess Garnet in the opening of the game.

Disclaimer:

Final Fantasy IX and all of the characters in it are all courtesy of the makers.

As The Clear Lights Filtered Through The Windows

Unimpeded by other schemes, this hints of things to come takes time to expand in the new morning light, and we attempt to watch it unobtrusively, with deep concentration.

—Haruki Murakami

I.

Through the talks heard from the translucent fantasies hidden in a glass

I was a child whose trembling hands resembled darkened wings,

my prayers unheard of—

and my longings had died

without a determination crossed my heart.

Birds came and flied by, leaving their scattered feathers

like thin plates of silver falling down the heaven's foyer

No angels understood—

there was no music playing across the seas

like a rush of silver fleet closing down the harbor.

II.

Come and impend; give or take back

those scattered morning lights like a honey melting down a silver spoon

None of them would understand—

because strangers we were all for each other,

the connection was only a string between two great towers.

I'd dreamed of that face of a man

strong hands, adam's fierceness

natural consolation seek by weary souls

He took the shape of a ghost

When morning came he'd haunt me like the sweetest gift from underworld.

III.

I would certainly leave this, yes—

and as I imagined that my hands

slowly resembled split wings

I'd also seen the stiffled soul rendered into dust,

That was before the crack of dawn.

I'd dreamed of that man again

This time he asked me to take his hand

I said yes but he was gone, leaving me still—

scattering into dust before a great shadow on the wall.

In the morning when the first birds sang their odes for the conscious,

I'd felt the warmness of that previous dream again;

As the clear lights filtered through the windows.

September 5, 2010

About the Poem:

Princess Garnet desired freedom, and this poem was arranged as if it was written by her during the game's opening motion picture. Here, she was dreaming about a random hero, and that hero turned out as a Zidane Tribal as the story unveils.

Author's Note:

The poem is a tribute for the best one of Final Fantasy series according to me. More than ten years had passed since the game's release, but it still has its deep impressions on me. I still remember the background songs, the calmness of Mist Continent, the lively city of nobles and forever-evening Treno, and the grandiose Alexandria with its signature glass tower, the stronghold of the winged Guardian Force Alexander.

I love the characters, their personalities were really strong. Talking about characters, though, I really, really miss Yoshitaka Amano's works. I don't mean to bash Tetsuya Nomura—for he's one awesome illustrator as well—but he'd made most of the recent characters way too youth-culture oriented instead of more genuine works of art which Amano had done before him.

Honestly speaking, Final Fantasy IX is the last serial of Final Fantasy installments that is still interesting for me even until the day I write this down. Final Fantasy X, sadly said, had ruined it all. Don't get me started about Final Fantasy XII as well.

Anyway, thank you for reading!