Son of the gods born to rape women and enslave men rule over the land between Uruk's walls three meters tall bull on a rampage strong as a god cruel as a man It is I am the king the gods seek to enslave me to appease the cries of the mortals in the wild they create an offspring of silence equal in strength to a rock from the sky I send a prostitute to do for the man the work of a woman six days and seven nights he will then stand tall lose the smell of the wild and the beasts will run when they see him come and he will eat bread and drink wine My equal defies me but I am no one's creation I'm a son of gods lions are afraid of me so he becomes my friend of council and we seek glory kill the monster guardian of the forest fearsome beast you will die today His dead body pays for my glory and calls the attention of the goddess of love and war I know of her tricks and her cursed past lovers and I say no I tell her no, I don't want your love so she goes to her father and says if you don't avange me against Gilgamesh I will smash the gates of the Netherworld and I'll free the shadows I'll bring up the dead to consume the living and the dead will outnumber the living and so it is decided and they send the bull of heaven to kill me I don't need the help of the gods to kill the bull of heaven I have my friend equal in strength and though I'm proud I fear for how this will end the gods swear revenge and I wait Their sickness kills my friend I have flesh from a god but sorrow in my heart Only death awaits me nothing but old age and forgetfulness just like any other man

death cannot reach me in my palace my sorcerers say that time will stand still the gate is magic sealed and death will not come in magic and time are the bricks of the future and useless past is dead as the wall that holds a dream I will burn it's shadow scent and it's judging eye I'll burn the books of history the memories of old the flames will be the birth of the first story told my name will be the name of the first man who lived first emperor of China Shih Huang Ti I will build a wall the largest ever seen around the whole Empire to the memory of me I am the greatest ruler of unending dynasty a thousand sons of power into eternity my wall and warriors will be testament to the world of the power that I hold you are not a man you are my slave if you love the past I'll bury you alive if you hide your books you will build my wall

This night of magic and destiny an ancient spirit talked to me I have the power over men's lives but I'm no son of Paradise My ears were filled with talks of war My back a lonesome burdain bore Son of Genghis Khan is hunting in the sun By the river Alph deep down a sunless sea A woman spirit roams this land her demon lover comes again I am a puppet I am not free I am a slave of sorcery And in the winter when I leave The devil in my palace lives And when my life is finished, gone My lineage over my broken throne The hands of China rule my land I was betrayed yet once again The woman goes to poet's bed And of her demon's house she tells

Vathek was a caliph and he Wanted to learn the secrets of the universe He built a tower to study the stars Astrology was his craft and an omen he read of a man who would come from an unkown land The man soon came and he was ugly as a dog brough a cimitar with two messages in the blade "this land is wonderful" and "damned will be who wants to know what is forbidden" But Vathek wanted to know he had visions of the demon-faced man forty human sacrifices and abandoning the muslim faith would buy him the key to the palace where a crown would be given to him He became the ruler of pain and misery he terrorized his land and his men he worshipped demons and his soul was dark as the night as black magic the new art of his life and he was truly lost forty men were killed the califf was brought in trance to a mountain were the Earth opened to him he descended saw the fountain of slavery and of the power of man over man He descended into hell The greatest temptation to him Power-loving man

I've seen truth with mirrored eyes reversed signs of good and bad I am a symbol of something unknown and the joys of life are the torments of hell They will say Heaven is a reward And hell, a punishment to evil, black soul men Melancholic meditation forgetful of the angels' tongue There is no such thing as evil and sin all that is to the Creator will return

In 1797 Coleridge received in a dream a vision of Kublai Khan's palace in Shangdu and of a woman who sang of her homeland. The poem was 200 verses long but Coleridge couldn't finish it before his memory faded. It's unlike any of his other poems, like it wasn't written by himself 30 years later Rashid Al-Din's history book was first published in Europe, telling of how Kublai Khan dreamed about a palace and had it built East of Shangdu. The palace was described by Marco Polo, who wrote that the Khan, on horseback, would use his leopard to hunt to feed his hawks. I believe this is the action of an unknown force, maybe the Abyssinian woman in the poem, longing for a home for her demon lover, or for the ancient voices who spoke of war to the Khan. The palace is now in ruins and the poem is incomplete, but the woman will come again to complete the project, perhaps in the form of music.