The mendo
The mendo is one of the most flexible Xaîni verse forms, in that its sole requirement is that it should consist of three lines. Various metres may apply to these lines, or they may even be blank verse, which has enjoyed a vogue at certain times, notably the early Xwa mandate period. A good mendo should however be allusive, concise, and complete in itself; the final line should normally act as a conclusion or resolution of some theme introduced in the first two lines.
Some examples of mendoxa:
| saxuxi lek | I have held steel | |
| saxuxi tainod ek | and I have held silver | |
| da ek tolmuxi med e-lu | and I have walked among the stars |
This is the epitaph of Tandukalendo Mai, the first shushin (Xaîni leader) to have travelled in space, an event whose repercussions led to the end of the Mai mandate. The holding of steel refers to her membership of the Tsinjan caste, the holding of silver to the fact that she was by birth a member of the Tsinroth, and an accomplished artist (silver is considered more precious than gold by Xaîni, because it tarnishes and its beauty is thus impermanent; indeed, the words for beauty, thando, and for silver, tainod, are semantically linked).
| kifmarammu x-ixel sha nioreth | I remember the warm nights beside the water | |
| u-liferklu x-ilot te x-irindil | How the blossoms fell and fell into the voice of the stream | |
| ilot na kondo; u-sanser antole | Kondo blossoms; and they flowed far away. | |
| sivis rixitai ek antole, avaa | I too have been carried far away | |
| ro meldekluresh x-ilot te xulai | And if the blossoms still rain down in that place | |
| kveisharammussangye ta-sardwithin | I cannot return to be moved by them |
This classic exile poem by the poet Ishudnaringjol Xetiki is a fine example of a double mendo from the late Sharn mandate, much favoured by calligraphers
| melde; stichir e-kataaxa azdan | it rains; the swords are rusting | |
| melde; stichir si tenukka awzad | it rains; my muscles are stiff | |
| shalthe amfelaidin x-ar the Mendan; ammelde | in the spring I shall praise the sun in Mendan; and it will rain |
This last mendo, by the warleader Banchen tev Xarego Xawad, refers to the planned, and subsequently executed, sacking of the settlement of Mendan by the Xawad during a seventy-year bloodfeud which only ended when the last of the Mendani line had been killed. The rain referred to in the last line is of course one of blood.