Quendi – Those Who Speak With Voices
The shining towers of Tirion
Fill with laughter from below.
The cackles of pure delight run
Like molten silver, a gentle stream that
Joins with others into a rush
That neither wall nor fence can stop
But tumbles on until the edges of the world.
For those of us with gift of voice
Will use it to express that which cannot—
Arrant joy like the light of the trees
Forever captured
Not in jewels but a smile,
Not in fire but in laughter,
Who can take this from us?
The light of Laurelin on our back,
The hills of Valinor spread around
For miles and miles there is only
A playground for those with
Little to ponder, nothing to regret.
Innocence is ignorance but who can say
That they prefer the grief?
And so was I, that spring morning,
With brother tall and cousin strong
Dancing like leaves tossed by the wind
In an empty garden of Lorien.
And the laughter that escaped our lips
Was sweeter than the smoothest melody,
More radiant than the brightest star.
But time does not wait for those
Who have no care,
Who labour under nothing,
And do not know how easy it is
To lose the remnants of their destiny
And that garden, that spring morning,
Is nothing now but a memory.