VOICES OF DESIRE: VALA AND THARMAS


vah," of whom it is the residue, will vanish. Further, Vala's slip that this
house is "bodily" reveals that these events are still drawing out implica-
tions of the "new risen body" of the narrative proper. (Luvah's choice of
"arise" in his command in Vala's dream makes it parallel his earlier com-
mand to Vala which itself re-enacts Ahania's rebirth.) Her incipient wor-
ship and idolatry of the house immediately precedes the third appearance
of"follow me o my flocks." Vala and the flock repeat their descent beneath
the trees, but this time Vala seems oblivious to them, as if dissatisfied with
her symbols of community and survival. Ungirding her girdle she views
herself narcissistically, superimposing her desire to survive over her anxi-
ous idolatry of the bodily house. Her wet hair suggests sexual arousal (a
freeing from the sinlesss" sleeping with a ram earlier), but she does not see
Luvah for whom she yearns, but rather Tharmas "sitting upon the rocks,"
mourning for his lost love Enion whom he perceives (or rather does not
perceive) closedd in clouds," exactly as Luvah was. Tharmas' request that
Enion bring "golden day" issues only in the fading of the little light that
remains (129:17-30).
 Tharmas' unfulfilled yearning exposes Vala's own, which she has thus
 far denied. Vala's response to this mourning vision is the most devastating
 and strident interrogation of all:

 Where is the voice of God that called me from the silent dew
 Where is the Lord of Vala dost thou hide in clefts of the rock
 Why shouldst thou hide thyself from Vala from the soul that wanders
 desolate
 (129:33-35)

 The successive surfacings of Vala's anger at her lot have consistently been
 thwarted by Luvah's concessions which in turn bring forth greater frustra-
 tion, and this scene is no exception. Light "like the glory of the morning"
 (129:36) appears in response to her cry. That this is a false morning recreat-
 ing Ahania's rebirth is evidenced by Vala's attempt to reverse her expanded
 perception (the vision of Tharmas) by putting her girdle on. The signifi-
 cance of this sequence to the repeated "Follow me O my flocks" is that
 after this point her flocks are of minimal importance: they are replaced by
 the two children who suddenly appear in her doorway.
 Following the sequence at the river, Vala is herself more physical: "her
 feet step on the grassy bosom of the ground" (130:2) contrasting with her
 earlier appearance running with her feet "wingd on the tops of the bend-
 ing grass" (126:34). The increased physicality ofVala is enacted narratively
 as the covert birth of the children who seem (to Vala and to us) to appear
 mysteriously. She sees them (which reintroduces the problem of visibility
 by means of a sudden emphasis on eye imagery) "in the door way beneath
 the trees" (130:4), imagery which hints at female genitalia, but obviously
 short-circuits any such univocal reduction. The visible children thus
 introduced replace the invisible Luvah as problematic fulfillment of Vala's
 desire to behold and converse.


Following her narcissis-
tic ungirdling, instead of
seeing Luvah on the
clouds, she sees Tharmas
on the rocks and hears
his lamentation to En-
ion, rather than the voice
of Luvah which she
sought.


Vala's emergent sexual-
ity materializes as two
children "in the door
way beneath the trees."