The Kiteron

2 - Daedalian Times

I've been looking for information about the manuscript's content. Unfortunately, nothing was of much help even though I've begun doing some research. A simple Internet search shows that the word Kiteron does not seem to have any special meaning. There are some links that point to the mountain Cithaeron in Greece. There seems to be a legend, some sort of story surrounding this mountain – something I need to investigate further (though I doubt that the mountain Cithaeron has anything to do with the manuscript).

Nevertheless, I think I've managed to find a clue, even though I can't really tell how valid it is. The following lines are mentioned in the manuscript: "glimpses of the otherworldly beauty that looks like the paradise described by the French composer". The first thing that crossed my mind was that whoever gave me this piece of paper, the manuscript, must have known that I am an avid listener of classical music. Secondly, by re-reading the text, I was drawn to a certain piece of music: Faure's Requiem. The association with the text was imminent: In his Requiem (which is a funeral mass), Faure includes a passage called "In Paradisum" (In Paradise). So here we have a French composer with a very direct reference (could it really be any more direct???) to "paradise".

Below you can find embedded a YouTube video of the aforementioned piece. I also provide the text which was originally supposed to be sung while the body of the deceased was transferred to the church during the funeral process.

"In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem."

  [Translation: "May the angels receive them in Paradise, at they coming may the martyrs receive thee and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem. There may the chorus of angels receive thee, and with Lazarus, once a beggar,may thou have eternal rest".]  

I really don't know if this is indeed a first clue but I'm so determined to carry on with my research. However, in order to be fair to my readers, I feel this is the time to break the bad news. Last night, while I was looking for the manuscript in order to take a photo and email it to friends who might be able to help, I realised that it had been misplaced! To make matters worse, I think I might have thrown it away by mistake – it probably ended up in the black plastic bag last night, along with the rest of my old university notes that were deemed to be useless. How could I be so careless??? To say that I am frustrated would be an understatement. There are no words to describe how I feel. Anyway, the last thing I remember was placing the manuscript on top of the printer cover. It could be that I moved it to the pile of useless photocopied notes which ended up in the rubbish just before going to bed. I really hope I've managed to translate it as accurately as possible on the Word file that I've kept.

The above incident has made me more determined to find out what the mysterious manuscript means and how I got hold of it in the first place. Therefore, I have decided to maintain this blog in order to post updates on my research, some sort of memoir from my university years, the years before and the years after, a cluster of different lives, hence the title "Daedalian Times". And I think it makes perfect sense if I start my chronicles by tracing the book in which I had found the manuscript. Luckily, it happens that this book is within easy reach right at this moment: a couple of shelves right above my laptop.