Acherons Mund
(São Miguel, Azoren)
Das Inselreich spricht
in zitterndem Licht,
in zischenden Quellen,
in schwefligen Schwaden,
in schlaflosem Raunen
aus rissigem Grund
am Unterweltsschlund.
Das Erdreich bestellt
am Rande der Welt
dem arglosen Wandrer
die Botschaft der Flammen,
die Mahnung der Schatten
aus Phlegetons und
aus Acherons Mund.
Christina Egan © 2016
Hot springs in Furnas, Sao Miguel Island, Azores.
Photograph by Henryk Kotowski via Wikimedia.
Acheron is the River of Pain and Phlegeton the River of Fire around Hades.
I believe that some Greeks or Phoenicians sailed to the Canary Islands and others may have reached the Azores; this might have influenced their mythology, describing the realms of the dead as a cave of shadows and as a blissful archipelago. More of the latter at Sonett der drei Seen!