"The Not Tale (Funeral)" by Caroline Bergvall

From "Shorter Chaucer Tales" (2006)

The great labour of appearance

Served the making of the pyre.

But how

Nor how

How also

How they

Shal nat be toold

Shall not be told.

Nor how the gods

Nor how the beestes and the birds

Nor how the ground agast

Nor how the fire

First with straw

And then with drye

And then with grene

And then with gold

And then

Now how a site is laid like this.

Nor what

Nor how

Nor how

Nor what she spak nor what was her desir

Nor what jewels

When the fire

Nor how some threw their

And some their

And their

And cups full of wine and milk

And blood

Into the fyr

Into the fire.

Nor how three times

And three times with

And three times how.

And how that

Nor how

Nor how

Nor how

Nor who

I cannot tell

Nor can I say

But shortly to the point I turn

And make of my tale an ende.

NOTES: Part of Bergvall’s ongoing cycle of texts, “Shorter Chaucer Tales” developed using a range of writing methods and languages, including direct quotes from Chaucer in Middle English. The short “The Not Tale” was very simply created by translating and excerpting the negatives that make up Chaucer’s description of Arcite’s funeral in “The Knight’s Tale.”