The Wheel

[sgtdraino]

I’ve been wondering lately about the poem/song that Kai recites in the episode “Twilight.” What could it mean? Did Kai make it up, or is he remembering it from his past?

Here is everything he says:

quote:

---

The billowing clouds.
The burning hills.

The billowing clouds that puff and flower,
Are calling me to an ancient bower.

I must sing my song.

The wheel.

Swings. Spins. Turns.

Where no thing is, shall nothing be.
Only then will I be free.

The wheel, it turns, it comes around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The wheel, it turns, it comes around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The wheel doth turn, it rolls around.

Gather ‘round the wheel, my friends,
And make amends, and make amends.
All this is about to end.

The night doth bleed into morn,
Sunlight seeping through the dawn,
Decayed, forlorn.

The wheel doth turn, it rolls around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The wheel, it turns, it spins around.

Fellows, come, come. Share with me your tired tales,
And let my windy words fill your empty sails,
As you travel across gray hills and brownish dales.

Around the hub we
The grinding wheel

It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

Around the wheel we lightly prance,
Around its hub we sprightly dance.

The grinding wheel, it rolls around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The fickle fates, the cosmic grind,
Conspire to leave our friends behind.

---

Personally, I think he is remembering it from his past. I think the Wheel could refer to the cycle of time, or perhaps the universe.

Another pet theory of mine, is that the song is actually intended to warn children about the Insects. In this case, the “wheel” refers to the shape the Insects take when they’re all balled up. They get inside your planet, and they eat it up from the inside. As they turn deep under the ground, the ground rumbles, signaling impending doom to those living on the surface.

So, anybody else got any ideas about this interesting and mysterious lyric?

[Anonymous]

I dont know about any hidden meanings, could be, who knows. But when they were flying away in the moth and Kai spoke those final words I had a good laugh!

[Anonymous]

Your ideas about the poem are ingenious and interesting. I hadn’t thought about it in connection with the insects. I saw it as a more obvious reference to the Wheel of Fortune, or Wheel of Fate, whatever. One day you’re the Master of the Universe (the Light one at least), next day you’re walking carrion.

It’s a rather florid poem, possibly an early Draco? . The beans do love trashing overblown poetry. I figured the inspiration was bad Romantic poetry–particularly when Kai starts playing with the skull. A Romantic standby.

I love Twilight. One of my all time favorite episodes. Totally off the wall; normal people don’t come up with selenium deficiency plots; And as always there’s moments that catch you off guard:

You’re laughing at Kai’s antics, then he suddenly says

]Where no thing is, shall nothing be.
Only then will I be free

…and ends up throwing the dead flowers over the cliff and you stop laughing as you realize what he really wants.

Again, when he throws the second HDS body over the cliffs and breaks into that happy, gleeful laugh (that you know you’ll never see again) the moment suddenly becomes poignant.

I guess I’ve gone off topic a bit here, sorry. Suffering from Lexx withdrawal. I thought the poem was a stroke of genius, and I love the look on everyone’s faces when Kai starts spouting it.

elmey

[Anonymous]

Actually, I don’t think it was meant to be a poem. It’s more separate strings of pretty words that aren’t meant to mean anything. When Kai says “Let my windy words fill your empty sails” I think he’s saying he’s being a big blowhard.

I dunno, but saying it’s a song to warn children about the Insect Civilization sounds like the theory that the “Twelve Days of Christmas” was a secret code Catholics used to teach childern their catechism under the rule of the Church of England. It’s just a nonsense song about the twelve days between Christmas Day and the Feast of the Epiphany, when the 3 Wise Men brought presents.

[DalekTek790]

I think it’s most likely representitive of the cycle of time.

It always seemed to me like a speech Kai or someone else was giving to the other newborns the night before the Fore Shadow attacked (“Gather ’round the wheel, my friends; And make amends, and make amends; All this is about to end.”).

[Anonymous]

Righto, lemmie have a crack at this!
Okay, cut and…paste…and :

The billowing clouds.
(Those he sees throught the window as he becomes affected by the radiation.)

The burning hills. (Perhaps those on Brunnis1, being destroyed by it’s ancient sun.)(Or, the detection of radiation coming from the planet.)

The billowing clouds that puff and flower,
Are calling me to an ancient bower. (A reference to heaven, and his own final death.)

I must sing my song. (Responding to Xev’s question, “Where are you going, Kai?” He feels the pull to become his old poetic half.)

The wheel. (Time)

Swings. Spins. Turns. (Pretending he’s the wheel, he does a little ballet! Drunkenly, mind you.)

Where no thing is, shall nothing be.
Only then will I be free. (His reference to the only way he can be killed. For, he must be totally destroyed to be in order to free himself of his wanderings. Note the misery on his face.)

The wheel, it turns, it comes around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound. (Now rumbling, I never got. Perhaps it’s a likeness for the noise of the stars.)

The wheel, it turns, it comes around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The wheel doth turn, it rolls around.

Gather ‘round the wheel, my friends,
And make amends, and make amends.
All this is about to end. (Nyuk nyuk, now he’s getting silly, but we all know he refers to the thousands he has killed. Interesting tho’ that he seems to believe in the restitution of his sins.)

The night doth bleed into morn,
Sunlight seeping through the dawn,
Decayed, forlorn. (Ah, referring to the endless plodding of his time in the universe. He cannot love, he cannot create, he cannot die, therefore he is decayed AND forlorn.)

The wheel doth turn, it rolls around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The wheel, it turns, it spins around.

Fellows, come, come. Share with me your tired tales,
And let my windy words fill your empty sails,
As you travel across gray hills and brownish dales. (Yes, he’s indicating that his poetry lacks substance.)

Around the hub we
The grinding wheel

It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

Around the wheel we lightly prance,
Around its hub we sprightly dance. (Trodding on eggshells, we hope to get the most out of life, but it’s a useless thing, the universe, time and fortune don’t answer to us that way.)

The grinding wheel, it rolls around.
It makes an ancient rumbling sound.

The fickle fates, the cosmic grind,
Conspire to leave our friends behind.
(A response to Xev’s cries as the baddies try to leave with the moth.)

(There. that’s my take on it. But I love the idea that the wheel and the rumbling might be a translated plittle lizard’s poem.)

[Author]

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