Jonathan Taylor
(United Kingdom)
Supernova AD 185
For Will Buckingham*
This guest star in the Southern Gate Constellation
was the size of a bamboo mat, five-hued,
eliciting delight and fury in equal measure.
It appeared during the tenth month of the second year
of the Zhongping era – being the sixtieth year
of the astrological cycle. Its brightness diminished
over the next few months and, after six months, vanished.
All astronomers knew the light foretold a terrible disaster
which duly took place in Luoyang, four years later.
Yuan Shao, the respected Metropolitan Commandant,
murdered two thousand officials and eunuchs,
Then General in Chief Wu Kuang and his army
attacked and defeated the armies of He Miao
who was General of Chariots and Cavalry,
and the dead numbered many thousands of men.
Thus we are encircled by a million stars, permanent
and guest, each and every one of them
if read rightly foretelling a massacre to come.
*Based on a translation by Will Buckingham of the Book of the Later Han, c. AD 445 (Astronomy, Latter Section).
Supernova AD 1006; or, How to Get Ahead in the Workplace
After the biography of Chou K’o-ming, AD 954-1017*
During the third year of the Ching-tê reign
a guest star appeared west of Ti in the Lupus
constellation, three times the size of Venus,
casting shadows even during daytime.
Emperor Ching-tê and the people of Kaifong
were afraid it was coloured blue, a kuo-huang
or ill-omen portending calamity, warfare, famine.
Returning from his journey to Ling-nan,
Chou K’o-ming, Director of the Bureau
for Astronomy, consulted the T’ien-wên-lu
and Ching-chou-chan and declared instead
that since the star was yellow in colour
and huang-huang-jan in light this sign
was a Chou-po, a glorious omen or ching-hsing,
blessing a glorious Emperor and his nation
with much-deserved prosperity. All were content
to believe him – and the star certainly
blessed Chou K’o-ming himself, for he was soon
promoted to Chief Librarian and official Escort
of the Crown Prince, in recognition of services
to astrology, prophecy and truth.
*As featured in David H. Clark and F. Richard Stephenson, The Historical Supernovae (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1977), p.116, and Paul and Lesley Murdin, Supernovae (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp.15-16.
The Tale of the King and the Ghost*
The beautiful ghost that appeared
before great King Neferkare
was neither from sky nor earth
but hovered somewhere between,
his tears ringing him like a halo.
The King was not frightened,
but addressed the spirit directly:
“Welcome back to Memphis
in the name of Ptah, my son.
Why do you weep this way?”
The ghost-boy answered:
“Don’t you know me, my Lord?
I am Khentyka’s son Snefer.
I cry because in Osiris’s realm
all that remains for me is the past,
while all you have is the future.
You can look to the rising sun
while I only ever see it setting.
We are forever sundered, Lord,
and however much I desire it
I can never again touch you.”
Then the King shed a tear too
because he had loved Snefer,
Khentyka’s boy, once. Hearing
of this grief, the necropolises
burst open and the Nile’s banks
overflowed with the tears
of ghosts who could no longer
touch the future, their grief
outweighing that of the living
as ten thousand deben
to a single feather.
The flood only abated after
many of the dead were reunited
with brothers and lovers
drowned by Anuket and Sobek.
Neferkare was not among them
and Snefer, Khentyka’s boy,
mournfully faded away
leaving his King to the future –
towards which the latter hurried
as if into the anaesthetizing
embrace of Ammit the Devourer.
*From the Middle Kingdom, 2000-1700 BC. Elaborated from the fragment translated by R. B. Parkinson.
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BIO
Jonathan Taylor is an author, editor, lecturer and critic. His books include the novels Melissa (Salt, 2015) and Entertaining Strangers (Salt, 2012), the poetry collection Musicolepsy (Shoestring, 2013), and the memoir Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta Books, 2007). He is director of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester. He lives in Leicestershire, in the UK, with his wife, the poet Maria Taylor, and their twin daughters, Miranda and Rosalind.
His website is :
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