Songs in the Year of the Cat by H. Leighton Dickson

“It is obvious by the way she was carrying. “Oh, it’s a boy, Xuan,” said the ocelot as she stroked the mother’s forehead. She had large eyes and bindhi dots the colour of jade. “It is a big baby, isn’t it, Farit?” asked the young jaguar. Two others - a young jaguar and an old leopard - hovered at her knees, linens and oil basins at the ready, while an ocelot sat with her, mopping her forehead with cloths and humming in strange, exotic keys. Inside, a woman lay on the wooden floor, propped up on spotted elbows, breathing. Above all else, it was a night for incense. It was a night for candles, lamps and braziers of sizzling coal. Despite its appearance, it did remarkably well at keeping the rainwater off and ground water out on this cold, rainy night. It sat up on stilts, this little house, had no window and only a flap of canvas for a door. The roof was thatched grass, the walls pikes of rattan bound together like a fence. It was raining on the little pukka house in Nam. And so, we begin our story with the birth of a baby, the weeping of a dog and a cup of hot sweet tea, naturally in the Year of the Cat. It is a mystery, but cats are, after all, a mysterious people.

In Nam, it is simply called the Year of the Cat. You see, in Nam, there is no word for rabbit. There is a small and curious problem with Nam. It has also been transcribed for all the reaches of the Empire as well, from Lanladesh to Shiryia, from Hindaya to Aegyp but not in Nam. The Book of Truths is a very old book, translated into all tongues of the Empire -Hanyin and Shaharabic, Farashish and Hindih. It is also a year to assert the efforts of diplomacy, for a war will never go well in the Year of the Rabbit. A year to conduct sensible business, to embrace family, to go on trips.

It is elegant and sweet, a gentle breath after the roaring of the Tiger. We live in a marvelous world – one even more fantastical than anything we could dream or imagine!Īccording to the Book of Truths, the Year of the Rabbit is a peaceful one. Also, like the first books, city names, locations and even monasteries are all based on real places and you can have fun google-mapping along with the story. I have tried to infer the formal/informal speech patterns in subtle ways but I think you’ll get the drift. Most languages other than English have formal and informal nouns/pronouns etc, and that would have a strong influence on how a character such as Kirin would speak.

I will make a few comments re: the languages – yes, Mongolian and Chinese, with artistic liberties. The characters are established in Books 1 & 2 but continue to change and develop (as we all do) over the course of these next books.

If you’re reading this, you probably know it is the third in a series.

Songs in the Year of the Cat by H. Leighton Dickson