macksting

In the book The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle), there’s a figure who uses the name Elli. Her song is as follows:

“What is plucked will grow again,
What is slain lives on,
What is stolen will remain
What is gone is gone…
What is sea-born dies on land,
Soft is trod upon.
What is given burns the hand -
What is gone is gone…
Here is there, and high is low;
All may be undone.
What is true, no two men know -
What is gone is gone…”

Later, after her scenes are done, another person sings a verse she hadn’t sung, and doesn’t remember where she heard it.

“Who has choices need not choose.
We must, who have none.
We can love but what we lose -
What is gone is gone.”