My heart, my coming forth of darkness! (FW65, No. 33 - III.3, 490-500)

The "Prankquean refrain" appears in this chapter, originally found in I.1 during the short story centered on the figure of the same name, who poses a riddle to the Jarl von Hoother and steals his children when he fails to answer. There, it reads, "why do I am alook alike a poss of porterpease?" 

The meaning is, of course, opaque, but I am interested in its role in an interesting section of the long dialogue of III.3, where it is ensconced in an exchange which draws on Egyptian Book of the Dead language:

—Let Eivin bemember for Gates of Gold for their fadeless suns berayed her. Irise, Osirises! Be thy mouth given unto thee! For why do you lack a link of luck to poise a pont of perfect, peace? On the vignetto is a ragingoos. The overseer of the house of the oversire of the seas, Nu-Men, triumphant, sayeth: Fly as the hawk, cry as the corncrake, Ani Latch of the postern is they name; shout!

—My, heart, my mother! My heart, my coming forth of darkness! They know not my heart, O coolun dearest! Mon gloomerie! Mon glamourie! What a surprise, dear Mr Preacher, I to hear from your strawnummical modesty! Yes, there was that skew arch of chrome sweet home, floodlit up above the flabberghosted farmament and bump where the camel got the needle. Talk about iridecencies! Ruby and beryl and chrysolite, jade, sapphire, jasper and lazul. (FW 493-494)

My sense is that the first voice is Mamlujo, and the responder is Yawn. 

The basic meaning of the Prankquean refrain is relatively easy to discern. Pretending that we did not know that this was a version of that riddle, the statement here is a question put to Yawn who is imagined to soon to be an Osiris awakening in the underworld...but not yet. The question asks, why are you not presently able to erect ("poise") a bridge ("pont") for safe passage to the realm of perfect peace? Yawn is not yet dead, is still on the journey through darkness towards light, and is stopping for this interview.

The speaker seems to be looking at a copy of the Book of the Dead and notes that the accompanying vignette shows a goose (transformation into different animals, like birds, is a common theme in the Book of the Dead). Most curiously, Yawn may even be identified with ALP: though "Ani" invokes the owner of the most famous BD scroll (published by Budge and known by JJ), Any, it sounds like Annie. There was also apparently a tea in Dublin made by Anne Lynch & Co. As a part of a gate or portal, the postern here invokes another prominent part of BD spells: knowing the names of the gates, and their demon guardians, which lead deeper into the sacred realm of the beyond, each requiring an "open sesame"-type utterance to proceed. The speaker, then, is uttering a spell over Yawn and urging him to shout the right name: he is trying to protect his entry into the afterlife, as a transformed bird, even as ALP (remember: Shaun has been floating down the Liffey in a barrel...).

The Prankquean refrain is transformed, not a riddle to trick an HCE figure, but an earnest question to see whether the entrant into the beyond is ready. Shaun, perhaps, is being prepared to face the task of being confronted by the Prankquean in his next life, after he goes forth by day, and becomes HCE. Accordingly, Yawn reads from another spell of the Book of the Dead, no. 30B, which implores one's heart, tenderly referred to as "heart of my mother" (the heart that your mother knit for you in the womb) not to speak anything false. If it were to, then this could lead to a second death, annihilation, whether in the court of justice where the heart is weighed, or at any point during the treacherous journey. 

Yawn's identification with ALP comes through with his brief address to the preacher, reminding of the beginning of the letter ("Dear Reverend..."). I think he is continuing to speak as her when he notes (to the preacher still?) that he did, indeed, see "that skew arch of chrome sweet chrome" in the sky. As made of chromium, which is a shiny silver color, this could be the fog bow seen in the previous book. But it is also a fantastic and beautiful archway built in what is possibly the realm of the dead ("where the camel got the needle"), made, like the city described in Revelations, of fabulous flashing jewels. I'm not sure if these seven jewels all match up perfectly to ROYGBIV, but they at least evoke it. Characteristically, it begins with red, and you can also see violet at its end; but beryl seems to be able to occur in almost any color. The rainbow after the flood has not come yet, but Yawn imagines it while still "coming forth of darkness," even imperfectly, to exist.

[FW 493]