Once there was a knight on a bright white horse
and he came to a place with a dangerous looking gorge,
with a black shining castle on the other side
the valley looked narrow but his mind became wide.

And he crossed the cliffs getting near and closer
saw the castle rising up from its distant exposure
was protected by a wall so mighty and thick
that was built it seemed out of sorrow and brick.

He jumped off his horse and sat right down
looked at the highest tower on its top a crown
made of perls and gold and silver so precious
he couldn't believe it was built by human measures.

The wall had twelve portals that all were closed
on the biggest one he saw depicted a ghost
that was painted in colors so frightening and dark
he could hear his heart bumping loud and hard.

He knocked at the door but nothing was heard
so he recovered from his state of higher alert,
then he searched again for a way to get in
where the real challenge waited probably for him.

Behind this wall the castle stood firm
on a rock of obsidian he immediately learned.
Twelve towers he counted and all of them black
he looked up to them therefore bending his neck.

Each tower had windows without any glass.
He put his feet on a hill made out of grass
to see if there could be seen someone
but couldn't see nothing, couldn't see none.

So he stood there quite long, even more than a while
in his strange and sad outer castle exile
when suddenly he heard a voice from inside
from a window where only a queen could hide.

He heard her whisper and what she said
let him wonder, almost left him mad.
"To conquer this castle you have to overcome your fears
and after that you have to wait a dozen years.

Not before those years have passed you will see
my existence, my beauty and what I will be
after my sorrow left the inmost of my body
you are allowed so see my heart leaving this custody."

The knight he listened carefully and thought
a thousand battles in my life I have been fought
but what I here have to do and survive
surely is the hardest task of my life.

He then sat down on the earth before the gate
considering his desperate and unbelievable fate.
He fell asleep and didn't wake up before the 12th year ended.
His love to the queen was still there it only had pended.