POETS ON THIS PAGE:
“MY LOVE IS ONE AND ONLY, WITHOUT PEER” [ANON.; tr. by Foster] * “I WISH I WERE HER NUBIAN GIRL” [ANON.; tr. by John L. Foster] * ZHANG HENG * “FIGHTING SOUTH OF THE CASTLE” [ANON.; tr. by Arthur Waley] * HOMER * VIRGIL * GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS * DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS (a.k.a. JUVENAL) * LI PO * TU FU * LAO-TZU * FRANCIS PETRARCH * FOLGORE DA SAN GIMIGNANO * DANTE ALIGHIERI * FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA * PABLO NERUDA * WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
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[My love is one and only, without peer]
My love is one and only, without peer,
lovely above all Egypt’s lovely girls.
On the horizon of my seeing,
see her, rising,
Glistening goddess of the sunrise star
bright in the forehead of a lucky year.
So there she stands, epitome
of shining, shedding light,
Her eyebrows, gleaming darkly, marking
eyes which dance and wander.
Sweet are those lips, which chatter
(but never a word too much),
And the line of the long neck lovely, dropping
(since song’s notes slide that way)
To young breasts firm in the bouncing light
which shimmers that blueshadowed sidefall of hair.
And slim are those arms, overtoned with gold,
those fingers which touch like a brush of lotus.
And (ah) how the curve of her back slips gently
by a whisper of waist to god’s plenty below.
(Such thighs as hers pass knowledge
of loveliness known in the old days.)
Dressed in the perfect flesh of woman
(heart would run captive to such slim arms),
she ladies it over the earth,
Schooling the neck of each schoolboy male
to swing on a swivel to see her move.
(He who could hold that body tight
would know at last
perfection of delight-—
Best of the bullyboys,
first among lovers.)
Look you, all men, at that golden going,
like Our Lady of Love,
without peer.
Ramesside Period (1292-1070 BC ca.)
by Anonymous; translated from ancient Egyptian by John L. Foster
[I WISH I WERE HER NUBIAN GIRL]
I wish I were her Nubian girl,
one to attend her (bosom companion),
Confidante, and child of discretion:
Close hidden at nightfall we whisper
As (modest by day) she offers
breasts like ripe berries to evening-—
Her long gown settles, then, bodiless,
hangs from my helping hand.
O she'll give pleasure! in future
no grown man will deny it!
But tonight, to me, this chaste girl
bares unthinking the delicate blush
Of a most secret landscape,
her woman's body.
by Anonymous; translated from ancient Egyptian by John L. Foster
[CLICK HERE] for “The Bones of Zhuangzi” by Zhang Heng (78-139 A.D.) as translated by Arthur Waley
FIGHTING SOUTH OF THE CASTLE
They fought south of the Castle, They died north of the wall. They died in the moors and were not buried. Their flesh was the food of crows. "Tell the crows we are not afraid; We have died in the moors and cannot be buried. Crows, how can our bodies escape you?” The waters flowed deep And the rushes in the pool were dark. The riders fought and were slain: Their horses wander neighing.
by Anonymous, G.I24 B.C.; translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley
[CLICK HERE] for “The Odyssey” by Homer as translated by Robert Fitzgerald
[CLICK HERE FOR STEPHEN MITCHELL’S TRANSLATION OF HOMER’S ILIAD]
[CLICK HERE FOR ROBERT FAGLES’ TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL’S AENEID]
Sparrow, the Special Delight of My Girl
Sparrow, the special delight of my girl, whom often she teases and holds on her lap and pokes with the tip of her finger, provoking counterattacks with your mordant beak, whenever my luminous love desires something or other, innocuous fun, a bit of escape, I suppose, from her pain, a moment of peace from her turbulent passion, I wish I could play like she does with you and lighten the cares of my sorrowful soul. It thrills me as much as the nimble girl in the story was thrilled by the gilded apple that finally uncinched her virginal gown.
To me that man seems like a god in heaven (51)
To me that man seems like a god in heaven, seems—-may I say it?—-greater than all gods are, who sits by you & without interruption watches you, listens to your light laughter, which casts such confusion onto my senses, Lesbia, that when I gaze at you merely, all of my well-chosen words are forgotten as my tongue thickens & a subtle fire runs through my body while my ears deafened by their own ringing & at once my eyes are covered in darkness! Leisure, Catullus. More than just a nuisance, leisure: you riot, overmuch enthusing. Fabulous cities & their sometime kings have died of such leisure.
Let Us Live and Love (5)
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love; And though the sager sort our deeds reprove, Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive Into their west, and straight again revive; But, soon as once set is our little light, Then must we sleep one ever-during night. If all would lead their lives in love like me, Then bloody swords and armor should not be; No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should move, Unless alarm came from camp of love. But fools do live and waster their little light, And seek with pain their ever-during night. When timely death my life and fortune ends, Let not my hearse be vexed with mourning friends; But let all lovers rich in triumph come, And with sweet pastime grace my happy tomb. And, Lesbia, close up thou my little light, And crown with love by ever-during night.
HANNIBAL
Throw Hannibal on the scales, how many pounds does the great captain come to? This is he who found the plains of Africa too small, rich Carthage with her mercenary grip stretched from Gibratar to the steaming Nile and back to Ethiopia, her stud for slaves and elephants. He set his hand firmly on Spain, then scaled the Pyrenees; when snows, the Alps, and Nature blocked his road, he derricked rocks, and split the mountainsides with vinegar. Now Italy is his; the march goes on. 'Think nothing done,' he says, 'until my Punic soldiers hack through Rome, and plant my standard over the Suburva's whorehouses.' What a face for painters! Look, the one-eyed leader prods his elephant! And what's the end? O glory! Like the others, he is defeated, then the worried flight, the great, world-famous client cools his heels in royal anterooms, and waits on some small despot, sleeping off a drunken meal. What is the last day of this mighty spirit whose valor turned the known world on its head? Not swords, or pikes, or legions--no, not these, his crown for Cannae and those seas of blood is poison in a ring. March, madman, cross the Alps, the Tiber--be a purple patch for schoolboys, and them for declamation!
by Decimus Junius Juvenalis, (55–60? CE–127?); translated loosely from Latin by Robert Lowell
DRINKING ALONE BY MOONLIGHT
I A cup of wine, under the flowering trees; I drink alone, for no friend is near. Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon, For he, with my shadow, will make three men. The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine; Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side. Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave I must make merry before the Spring is spent. To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams; In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks. While we were sober, three shared the fun; Now we are drunk, each goes his way. May we long share our odd, inanimate feast, And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky. II In the third month the town of Hsien-yang Is thick-spread with a carpet of fallen flowers. Who in Spring can bear to grieve alone? Who, sober, look on sights like these? Riches and Poverty, long or short life, By the Maker of Things are portioned and disposed; But a cup of wine levels life and death And a thousand things obstinately hard to prove. When I am drunk, I lose Heaven and Earth. Motionless—I cleave to my lonely bed. At last I forget that I exist at all, And at that moment my joy is great indeed. III If High Heaven had no love for wine, There would not be a Wine Star in the sky. If Earth herself had no love for wine, There would not be a city called Wine Springs.[2] Since Heaven and Earth both love wine, I can love wine, without shame before God. Clear wine was once called a Saint;[3] Thick wine was once called "a Sage."[3] Of Saint and Sage I have long quaffed deep, What need for me to study spirits and hsien?[4] At the third cup I penetrate the Great Way; A full gallon—Nature and I are one... But the things I feel when wine possesses my soul I will never tell to those who are not drunk.
by Li Po, 701-762; translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley
Pound’s English-language version of poem by Li Po [aka Rihaku]–“The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” read here by actress Jodie Foster:
MY THATCHED ROOF IS RUINED BY THE AUTUMN WIND
In the high autumn skies of September the wind cried out in rage, Tearing off in whirls from my rooftop three plies of thatch. The thatch flew across the river, was strewn on the floodplain, The high stalks tangled in tips of tall forest trees, The low ones swirled in gusts across ground and sank into mud puddles The children from the village to the south made a fool of me, impotent with age, Without compunction plundered what was mine before my very eyes, Brazenly took armfuls of thatch, ran off into the bamboo, And I screamed lips dry and throat raw, but no use. Then I made my way home, leaning on staff, sighing to myself. A moment later the wind calmed down, clouds turned dark as ink, The autumn sky rolling and overcast, blacker towards sunset, And our cotton quilts were years old and cold as iron, My little boy slept poorly, kicked rips in them. Above the bed the roof leaked, no place was dry, And the raindrops ran down like strings, without a break. I have lived through upheavals and ruin and have seldom slept very well, But have no idea how I shall pass this night of soaking Oh, to own a mighty mansion of a hundred thousand rooms, A great roof for the poorest gentlemen of all this world, a place to make them smile A building unshaken by wind or rain, as solid as a mountain, Oh, when shall I see before my eyes a towering roof such as this? Then I'd accept the ruin of my own little hut and death by freezing.
by Tu Fu, 712-770; translated from the Chinese by Stephen Owen
FOR STEPHEN MITCHELL’S TRANSLATION OF LAO-TZU’S “TAO TE CHING” [CLICK HERE]
SONNET 333
Go, grieving rimes of mine, to that hard stone Whereunder lies my darling, lies my dear, And cry to her to speak from heaven's sphere. Her mortal part with grass is overgrown. Tell her, I'm sick of living; that I'm blown By winds of grief from the course I ought to steer, That praise of her is all my purpose here And all my business; that of her alone Do I go telling, that how she lived and died And lives again in immortality, All men may know, and love my Laura's grace. Oh, may she deign to stand at my bedside When I come to die; and may she call to me And draw me to her in the blessèd place!
by Francis Petrarch, 1304-1374; translated from Italian by Morris Bishop
from SONNETS OF THE MONTHS
(ADDRESSED TO A FELLOWSHIP OF SIENESE NOBLES)
MAY
I give you horses for your games in May, And all of them well trained unto the course,— Each docile, swift, erect, a goodly horse; With armour on their chests, and bells at play Between their brows, and pennons fair and gay; Fine nets, and housings meet for warriors, Emblazoned with the shields ye claim for yours, Gules, argent, or, all dizzy at noonday. And spears shall split, and fruit go flying up In merry counterchange for wreaths that drop From balconies and casements far above; And tender damsels with young men and youths Shall kiss together on the cheeks and mouths; And every day be glad with joyful love. by Folgore da San Gimignanp, 1250?-1317; translated from Italian by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
DECEMBER
Last, for December, houses on the plain, Ground-floors to live in, logs heaped mountain-high, And carpets stretched, and newest games to try, And torches lit, and gifts from man to man: (Your host, a drunkard and a Catalan;) And whole dead pigs, and cunning cooks to ply Each throat with tit-bits that shall satisfy; And wine-butts of Saint Galganus' brave span. And be your coats well-lined and tightly bound, And wrap yourselves in cloaks of strength and weight, With gallant hoods to put your faces through. And make your game of abject vagabond Abandoned miserable reprobate Misers; don't let them have a chance with you. by Folgore da San Gimignanp, 1250?-1317; translated from Italian by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
“The Inferno” by Dante Alighieri as translated by Mark Musa:
Romance Sonámbulo (Sleepwalking Ballad)
Green, how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches. The ship out on the sea and the horse on the mountain. With the shade around her waist she dreams on her balcony, green flesh, her hair green, with eyes of cold silver. Green, how I want you green. Under the gypsy moon, all things are watching her and she cannot see them. Green, how I want you green. Big hoarfrost stars come with the fish of shadow that opens the road of dawn. The fig tree rubs its wind with the sandpaper of its branches, and the forest, cunning cat, bristles its brittle fibers. But who will come? And from where? She is still on her balcony green flesh, her hair green, dreaming in the bitter sea. --My friend, I want to trade my horse for her house, my saddle for her mirror, my knife for her blanket. My friend, I come bleeding from the gates of Cabra. --If it were possible, my boy, I'd help you fix that trade. But now I am not I, nor is my house now my house. --My friend, I want to die decently in my bed Of iron, if that's possible, with blankets of fine chambray. Don't you see the wound I have from my chest up to my throat? --Your white shirt has grown thirty dark brown roses. Your blood oozes and flees around the corners of your sash. But now I am not I, nor is my house now my house. --Let me climb up, at least, up to the high balconies; Let me climb up! Let me, up to the green balconies, Railings of the moon through which the water rumbles. Now the two friends climb up, up to the high balconies. Leaving a trail of blood. Leaving a trail of teardrops. Tin bell vines were trembling on the roofs. A thousand crystal tambourines struck at the dawn light. Green, how I want you green, green wind, green branches. The two friends climbed up. The stiff wind left in their mouths, a strange taste of bile, of mint, and of basil My friend, where is she--tell me-- where is your bitter girl? How many times she waited for you! How many times would she wait for you, cool face, black hair, on this green balcony! Over the mouth of the cistern the gypsy girl was swinging, green flesh, her hair green, with eyes of cold silver. An icicle of moon holds her up above the water. The night became intimate like a little plaza. Drunken 'Guardias Civiles' were pounding on the door. Green, how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches. The ship out on the sea. And the horse on the mountain.
by Frederico Garcia Lorca; translated from the Spanish by William Logan
The Unfaithful Married Woman
I took her to the river, believing her unwed; the fact she had a husband was something left unsaid. St. Jame's night is timely-- She would not let me wait-- The lights are put out early, the fireflies light up late. I roused her sleeping bosom right early in our walk; her heart unfolded for me like hyacinths on the stalk. Her starchy skirts kept rustling and crackled in my ears like sheets of silk cut crosswise at once by twenty shears. The dark unsilvered treetops grew tall, as on we strode; dogs barked, a whole horizon, far from the river road. When we had passed the brambles and the thickets on our round, her coiled hair made a pillow in a hollow on the ground: As I undid my necktie, her petticoats left their place; I shed my leather holster, and she, four layers of lace. Not nard nor snail had ever texture of skin so fine, nor crystal in the moonlight glimmered with purer shine: Her thighs slipped from beneath me like little trout in fright, half chilly (but not frigid), half full of shining light. The whole night saw me posting Upon my lovely mare; mother-of-pearl the saddle, no need for bridle and spur; and what her whispers told me a man should not repeat when perfect understanding has made the mind discreet. Dirty with sand and kisses I brought her from the shore as the iris poised green sabres at the night wind once more. To act in decent fashion as loyal gypsy should, I gave her a sewing-basket, satin and straw, and good; and yet I would not love her in spite of what she said when I took her to the river, for she was not unwed.
by Federico Garcia Lorca; translated from Spanish by Rolfe Humphries
RIDER’S SONG
Córdoba.
Far away and alone.
Black pony, big moon,
and olives in my saddle-bag.
Although I know the roads
I’ll never reach Córdoba.
Through the plain, through the wind,
black pony, red moon.
Death is looking at me
from the towers of Córdoba.
Ay, How long the road!
Ay, My valiant pony!
Ay, That death should wait me
before I reach Córdoba.
Córdoba.
Far away and alone.
by Federico Garcia Lorca; translated from Spanish by Stephen Spender and J. L. Gili
Philip Levine reads Federico Garcia Lorca’s “New York (Office and Denunciation).” The translator is uncredited. Written while García Lorca was a student at Columbia University in 1929-30, Poet in New York is arguably one of the poet’s most important works, and a powerful testament to New York City as seen through the eyes of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century:
A visual interpretation of Pablo Neruda‘s “Ode to my Socks” by Emma Wood:
Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda; translated by William Carlos Williams [Spanish Text]
| Maru Mori brought me a pair of socks that she knitted with her own hands of a shepherdess, two soft socks you’d say they were rabbits. In them I stuck my feet as in two jewel cases woven with threads of twilight and lamb skins.Violent socks, my feet were two fish made of wool, two long sharks of ultramarine blue |
shot with a tress of gold, two gigantic blackbirds, two cannons: my feet were honored in this manner by these celestial socks. They were so beautiful that for the first time my feet seemed to me unacceptable like two decrepit firemen, firemen unworthy of that embroidered fire, those luminous socks. |
Nevertheless I resisted the acute temptation to keep them as schoolboys keep fireflies, or the erudite collect sacred documents, I resisted the furious impulse to put them in a cage of gold and to feed them every day bird seed and the pulp of rosey melon. Like discoverers who in the forest yield the very rare |
green deer to the spit and with regret eat it, I stretched out my feet and pulled over them the beautiful socks and then my shoes.And this is the moral of my ode: twice beautiful is beauty and what is good is twice good when it is two socks made of wool in winter. |
To see the Stephen Mitchell translation of Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to the Artichoke” click here. Please note that the English version appears on alternate pages with the Spanish.
ODE TO THE TOMATO
The street filled with tomatoes, midday, summer, the light splits in two halves of tomato, the juice runs through the streets. In June the tomato cuts loose, invades the kitchens, takes over lunches, sits down comfortably on sideboards, among the glasses, the butter dishes, the blue saltshakers. It has its own light, a benign majesty. Unfortunately, we have to assassinate it: the knife plunges into its living flesh, it is a red viscera, a cool, deep, inexhaustible sun fills the salads of Chile, is cheerfully married to the clear onion, and to celebrate, oil lets itself fall, son and essence of the olive tree, onto the half-open hemispheres, pepper adds its fragrance, salt, its magnetism: it is the day's wedding, parsley raises little flags, potatoes vigorously boil, with its aroma the steak pounds on the door, it's time! let's go! and on the table, in the belt of summer, the tomato, luminary of earth, repeated and fertile star, shows us its convolutions, its canals, the illustrious plenitude and the abundance without pit, without husk, without scales or thorns, the gift of its fiery color and the totality of its coolness.
by Pablo Neruda, 1904–1973; translated by Stephen Mitchell
HORSES
From the window I saw the horses. I was in Berlin, in winter. The light was without light, the sky without sky. The air white like wet bread. And from my window a vacant arena, bitten by the teeth of winter. Suddenly, led by a man, ten horses stepped out into the mist. Hardly had they surged forth, like flame, than to my eyes they filled the whole world, empty till then. Perfect, ablaze, they were like ten gods with pure white hoofs, with manes like a dream of salt. Their rumps were worlds and oranges. Their color was honey, amber, fire. Their necks were towers cut from the stone of pride, and behind their transparent eyes energy raged, like a prisoner. And there, in silence, in the middle of the day, of the dark, slovenly winter, the intense horses were blood and rhythm, the animating treasure of life. I looked, I looked and was reborn: without knowing it, there, was the fountain, the dance of gold, the sky, the fire that revived in beauty. I have forgotten that dark Berlin winter. I will not forget the light of the horses.
by Pablo Neruda, 1904–1973; translated by Stephen Mitchell
I LIKE FOR YOU TO BE STILL
I like for you to be still it is as though you are absent And you hear me from far away And my voice does not touch you it seems as though your eyes had flown away And it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth As all things are filled with my soul You emerge from the things Filled with my soul You are like my soul A butterfly of dream And you are like the word: Melancholy I like for you to be still And you seem far away it sounds as though you are lamenting A butterfly cooing like a dove And you hear me from far away And my voice does not reach you Let me come to be still in your silence And let me talk to you with your silence That is bright as a lamp Simple, as a ring You are like the night With its stillness and constellations Your silence is that of a star As remote and candid I like for you to be still it is as though you are absent Distant and full of sorrow So you would've died One word then, One smile is enough And I'm happy; Happy that it's not true
by Pablo Neruda, 1904–1973; translator unknown
Neruda’s poem (also translator unknown) is read by Tom O’Bedlam:
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A Little Girl Tugs at the Tablecloth
She’s been in this world for over a year, and in this world not everything’s been examined and taken in hand. The subject of today’s investigation is things that don’t move by themselves. They need to be helped along, shoved, shifted, taken from their place and relocated. They don’t all want to go, e.g., the bookshelf, the cupboard, the unyielding walls, the table. But the tablecloth on the stubborn table —when well-seized by its hems— manifests a willingness to travel. And the glasses, plates, creamer, spoons, bowl, are fairly shaking with desire. It’s fascinating, what form of motion will they take, once they’re trembling on the brink: will they roam across the ceiling? fly around the lamp? hop onto the windowsill and from there to a tree? Mr. Newton still has no say in this. Let him look down from the heavens and wave his hands. This experiment must be completed. And it will.
by Wisława Szymborska; translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh.
from MONOLOGUE OF A DOG: New Poems by Wisława Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. English translation copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
The End and the Beginning
After every war someone has to clean up. Things won't straighten themselves up, after all. Someone has to push the rubble to the side of the road, so the corpse-filled wagons can pass. Someone has to get mired in scum and ashes, sofa springs, splintered glass, and bloody rags. Someone has to drag in a girder to prop up a wall, Someone has to glaze a window, rehang a door. Photogenic it's not, and takes years. All the cameras have left for another war. We'll need the bridges back, and new railway stations. Sleeves will go ragged from rolling them up. Someone, broom in hand, still recalls the way it was. Someone else listens and nods with unsevered head. But already there are those nearby starting to mill about who will find it dull. From out of the bushes sometimes someone still unearths rusted-out arguments and carries them to the garbage pile. Those who knew what was going on here must make way for those who know little. And less than little. And finally as little as nothing. In the grass that has overgrown causes and effects, someone must be stretched out blade of grass in his mouth gazing at the clouds.
by Wisława Szymborska
from Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wisława Szymborska, 2001
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY
Translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak. Copyright 2001 by Wisława Szymborska. All rights reserved.
To see Hitler’s baby picture click here
Hitler’s First Photograph
And who's this little fellow in his itty-bitty robe? That's tiny baby Adolf, the Hitlers' little boy! Will he grow up to be an LL.D.? Or a tenor in Vienna's Opera House? Whose teensy hand is this, whose little ear and eye and nose? Whose tummy full of milk, we just don't know: printer's, doctor's, merchant's, priest's? Where will those tootsy-wootsies finally wander? To garden, to school, to an office, to a bride, maybe to the Burgermeister's daughter? Precious little angel, mommy's sunshine, honeybun, while he was being born a year ago, there was no dearth of signs on the earth and in the sky: spring sun, geraniums in windows, the organ-grinder's music in the yard, a lucky fortune wrapped in rosy paper, then just before the labor his mother's fateful dream: a dove seen in dream means joyful news, if it is caught, a long-awaited guest will come. Knock knock, who's there, it's Adolf's heartchen knocking. A little pacifier, diaper, rattle, bib, our bouncing boy, thank God and knock on wood, is well, looks just like his folks, like a kitten in a basket, like the tots in every other family album. Shush, let's not start crying, sugar, the camera will click from under that black hood. The Klinger Atelier, Grabenstrasse, Braunau, and Braunau is small but worthy town, honest businesses, obliging neighbors, smell of yeast dough, of gray soap. No one hears howling dogs, or fate's footsteps. A history teacher loosens his collar and yawns over homework.
Jeff Grinnell's Poetry Platform 