Ólóri (Queen) : Goddess of Saaremaa

Ólóri !



A beauteous being in a black woolen dress stepping on snowing silkily earth;

Thou an European goddess but thy countenance is like of an African birth,

Ólòkún the Mother, bestowed thee with unfathomable beauty like the old,

Thy resemblance is of Osún, so beautiful and virtuous, as often told;



I saw thee in Saaremaa during my feat at the Kuressaare village square;

At thy footstool the friars and the gods wantonly swoon and swear;

A warrior thou hath, thou command the beasts to bid the commoners' wishes,

Thou like Queen Sheba hath command and freely give the finest of earthly riches,



Thy eyes in the day are like emerald touches of western witches crystal ball,

Within thy grasps are the magical beings that warmly heed to thy call,

So mysterious; thou highly revered, beautiful and untouched;

Betrothed to the Viking king that made thee a savage crutch;



O' Ólóri thy charms inspires and am in love with thee no doubt at first sight;

Thou so mysterious and wild like the darkest night;

Thy eyes in the night are like the burning sun in a cloudy sky;

So beautiful thou hath been from now with the early stars;



Ólóri, i quavered at the call of thy ethereal name;

Heed me now for I desired thee not for thine earthly fame;

Let me part your lips of fire with mine even if it burns and melt away;

O' dear Ólóri will thou allow thine heart to be stolen for another day?



Will thou vanish with me and escape this stillness; only thou could dare?

Thou a goddess I surrender now to thine enchanted lair,

Even just for a day faraway we twine from thine gravely abode?

We'll dwell in the crystal cave the archangels bestowed;



There you laid so peaceful and gentle at every sparkle;

On the 12th day you were gone and i lay at this grate in shackles;

These were my melodies and still as I lay down in the gallows;

The Viking has ordered now I sleep among the shadows;









(Ólóri: is a Yoruba word for a Queen and Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa; Ólòkún is an ocean goddess; while Osún is the goddess of love, intimacy and marriage)



(Photo shoot by photographer and model: Madli Kiri - taken on the island of Saaremaa, in Estonia)





Gafar Olorunleke Odubote, “Ólóri” : Goddess of Saaremaa", copyright 2017