Muted walls of voiceless memories long gone

Keep alive the feats and foibles of warriors
Whose shadow over old Byzantium lingers on:
Oh, of Justinian's glory, where the flowers?
Another time, another world our destinies

In the endless flow of time will surely merge;
But here, lo! at a whim the light-dusted lilies
Are soon white ashes in the twilight dirge.
Regardless the world's relentless gaze

Dwells yet on sacred Sophia's heavenly dome
Where angels visible only to few blaze
A luminous trail in God's celestial home.
Kings and Queens have for years long 

And short on blood-stained thrones reigned
While armies marched and clashed among
Sunlit hills by the blood of heroes stained.
All in one within the Golden Horn

East and West merging and our stars shining
We await the first rays of the Mystic Dawn
When birds over Marmara gloriously sing! 
 
Claudio Wye
May 5, 2000