Naked, nameless, knowing no more of the world
Than the stars in the water and the waves in the wind
And the gentle breath curling into the infinite whirl.
But the sea could not hold, and it gave of itself.
And thus was I lost, as fate wills us all:
Lost with the immeasurable being of myself
Which the land had trapped inside of its walls.
A face is a portrait by the observer’s hand
Which brushes by your own, but never reaches out
To clasp it, to join the sea and the land
At the place where lovers meet to gambol about.
I am your image. Your smile becomes mine.
And if you should will it, your will becomes mine.
As you desire, lord, thus shall I be:
I sing your music and it becomes me.
-- Sara Gong
Commentary:
The motif of the ocean references both the shipwreck preceding the events of Twelfth Night and the myth of Aphrodite. It also is associated with the theme of purity. This I built upon by describing the world in slightly absurdist language, thereby bringing attention to the baby’s innocence: it sees the world without any of society’s expectations.
The baby, of course, is Viola. The innocent must grow up; Viola had to return to land. Thus she was lost- both literally in a strange land, and figuratively with her identity. To survive, Viola had to hide all that she was behind a mask. I also reference the later twisted events of Twelfth Night- if Sebastian hadn’t showed up, she would have been trapped and, to put it lightly, completely screwed.
The last two stanzas concern love. With a pun (I apologize), I use a metaphor of art to address how the loved is created in the lover’s eye. Orsino is obviously more in love with his idea of Olivia than with Olivia herself, and Olivia sees who she wants to see in Cesario. At the same time, I ask about the nature of love. Is it real? My conclusion is that it is not (at least in the context of Twelfth Night). The hands never reaches out to join the (perhaps unjoinable?) lovers. Here I also allude to marriage. Games drive the plot of Twelfth Night, but the fun must end if the characters wish to advance (both themselves and humanity through children). Can Orsino and Viola, Sebastian and Olivia, and Toby and Maria reach maturity?
The last stanza focuses on Viola's love. She has been carrying out Orsino’s courtship of Olivia, even against her own desires. Love is a sort of self-imposed slavery, and that's absurd yet also tragic. Viola is Orsino’s image- created by him, owned by him, and mirroring of him. In a vaguely horrifying conclusion, she sings his music and it becomes all that she is.