Falkayn Going To Babur

Mirkheim, IV.

David Falkayn calls an unorthodox game of poker. I do not understand the references to wild cards etc. 

"'Om mane padme hum,' whispered Adzel shakenly." (p. 76)

In an American TV comedy, a young man who had made a difficult catch in football was asked what had passed through his head as he watched the ball descend and he replied, "The Lord's Prayer?" Obviously, he had not been reciting the Lord's Prayer but we use such phrases to express strong feelings and what feel like life or death situations. "Om mane padme hum" and "Our Father..." are equivalents.

When my late friend, Fran Cobden, referred to "David Falkayn and his merry crew," he must have been thinking of passages like this chapter.

Falkayn quotes Tennyson's Ulysses:

"'I am a part of all that I have met...'" (p. 79)

In this poem, I prefer the later lines:

for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.