Listen if you want to know what has become of the majesty
that led an army of raised spears which destroyed the power
of kings, which circled the wide world in the proper direction
and was so vast that the front of the army ate palmyra seeds,
the center the ripe fruit and the rear ate the tuber
matured so that it split open with its fibers and was cooked
on a fire! That majesty lies now in a broad, thorny forest
upon salty land crowded with weeds! The conches of war
with their curled mouths that once hung solidly together
like the dangling nests of weaver birds lest the king
Cetcenni Nalankilli might hear them can now be heard
in the morning and as they are sounded at the doorways
of the protectors of the earth
with melodious drums announcing victories, I stand here in mourning.