some Artemidorus who carries a letter,
who says in a hurry, “Read this right away:
something important of interest to you.”
Do not fail to stop; do not fail to postpone
any conference or task
or strivers who greet you
and make their obeisances.
Later you’ll see them.
Make even the Senate wait
a little for you to receive
the grave message of Artemidorus.
Finalities
In fear and suspicions,
with troubled mind and fearful eyes
we waste away plotting what to do
to escape the certain danger
that threatens us terribly.
And yet we are mistaken:
It isn’t this in the road ahead.
The reports were false
(either we did not hear them
or we did not understand them).
A different catastrophe, one we did not imagine
sudden, violent , falls on us unready
—no time now—and carries us off.
Sculptor of Tyana
As you will have heard I am no beginner
A certain amount of stone passes through my hand
They know me well in Tyana, my home,
and legislators here have ordered
many of their statues from me.
To show you some just now
look at this Rhea: reverence,
endurance itself, eldest of all.
Look at Pompey, Marius,
Aemilius Paulus, Scipio Africanus,
likenesses as true as I could make;
Patroklos (I’ll retouch him shortly).
By those pieces of yellow marble
that’s Caesarion.
For some time now I’ve been occupied with a Poseidon.
I take special care with the horses,
how to form them.
They have to be so light
—their bodies and legs—
you can easily see
they do not tread the earth
they only run the waters.
But here is my most darling work
devised with passion and utmost care.
One hot summer day
when my mind rose up to the ideal
I formed him here in a dream, young Hermes.
The God Leaves Anthony
When suddenly at midnight you hear
an invisible company pass,
splendid music and voices,
your fate that collapses, your works
that failed, the plans of your life
that all turned out delusions,
do not mourn them helplessly.
As though long ready, as though confident,
tell her goodbye, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, do not be fooled. Do not say
it was a dream, that your hearing was deceived.
Vain hopes, do not descend to them.
As though long ready, as though confident,
as befits you, who have had as your due such a city,
go up to the window strong
and listen with feeling and not
with cowardly pleas and complaints
up to full and final enjoyment of the sound,
the splendid instruments of the secret company,
and tell her goodbye, the Alexandria you are losing.
Ionic
Because we broke their idols
because we chased them from their temples
the gods despite this did not die at all.
O land of Ionia, they love you still
in their hearts remember you still
as an August morning lightens over you
an energy from their lives passes into your air
and sometimes a young and ethereal form
quick-paced, indistinct, passes over your hills.
The Glory of the Ptolemies
I, Lagid, descendant and king, totally occupy
(with my strength and wealth) the field of sensual pleasure.
No one, be he Macedonian or barbarian, is my peer.
No one is even near.
That Seleucid is a laugh with the treats he buys.
If you are looking for other things, see here.
This is clear: My city is the teacher,
crest of all Hellenic culture
in all the letters, in all the arts
the most skilled.
Ithaca
When you go out on the voyage to Ithaca
full of adventures, full of recognitions.
Laestrygonians and Cyclopes,
angry Poseidon, do not fear them.
You will never find such things in your way
if your view stays high, if a very
special emotion touches your mind and body.
Laestrygonians and Cyclopes,
wild Poseidon, you won’t meet them,
if you don’t transport them into your soul.
if your soul does not raise them before you.
Pray the way will be long.
Pray there be many summer mornings
when you—how gratefully, how gladly—
enter harbors you see for the first time.
stop at Phoenician exchanges,
acquire their fair, worked pieces, and
diamonds and coral, electrum and ebony,
and voluptuous scents of every kind,
voluptuous scents, as many as you can.
Go to many Egyptian cities.
Learn and learn from their scholars.
Always keep Ithaca in your mind
Arrival there is your goal
But do not at all hurry the trip.
Better years to get there.
Then when you are old you will anchor at the island
rich with all you’ve gained on the way.
not expecting Ithaca to give you wealth.
Ithaca gave you a beautiful voyage.
Without her you would not have set out.
but she cannot give you any more.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca did not fool you.
Wise as you have become, so expert by then,
You will know what an Ithaca means.
The Dangers
Said Myrtias (Syrian student
at Alexandria under the reign
of Augustus Constans and Augustus Constantius,
in part pagan, in part tending toward Christianity):
“Empowered with theory and study, I
shall not like a coward fear my affections:
I shall give my body to pleasures,
to enjoyments dreamt of,
to the most daring erotic desires,
to my blood’s wanton rush without
any fear, because whenever I will,
and I shall have the will, empowered
as I shall be with theory and study,
in the critical instants I shall find again
my spirit, as before, ascetic.”
Philhellene
Take care the engraving is artfully done,
the expression stately and severe,
the diadem probably better narrow—
I do not like those broad Parthian ones—
the inscription as usual in Greek
not overdone, not fulsome—
so the proconsul doesn’t misconstrue
(always grubbing around and reporting to Rome)
but still, honorific, of course.
Something very special on the other side:
discus-thrower, young man, good looking.
But above all see to it, Sithaspes,
(do not for the love of God forget)
that after “King” and “Savior” you
inscribe in elegant letters “Philhellene.”
and don’t now start getting smart with me
“Where
are the Hellenes?” and “Where is Hellenic culture
back of the Zagros here, beyond the Phraates?”
So many others, more barbarian than we are,
write it, and so also shall we.
In the end do not forget that sometimes
sophists come to us from Syria
and rhymsters and other vessels empty of serious learning.
We are not then un-Hellenic, surely.
Herodes Atticus
Ah, Herodes Atticus, what glory is his!
Alexander of Seleucia, one of our good sophists,
on arriving in Athens to speak
finds the city empty, for Herodes
is in the country, and all the young
have followed him there to hear him.
The sophist Alexander therefore
writes a letter to Herodes
and asks him to send back the Greeks.
Courteous Herodes answers directly
“Along with the Greeks, I’ll come too.”
How many lads in Alexandria now
in Antioch or in Beirut
(our speakers of tomorrow, whom Hellenism makes ready)
when they gather at their elegant festal tables
where talk is now of nice sophistics
and now of their wonderful love affairs
for a moment abstracted fall still
leave glasses untouched beside them
and reckon the luck of Herodes:
What other sophist has deserved this?
Whatever he likes and wherever he goes
the Greeks—the Greeks—follow him.
They do not judge nor do they argue,
nor choose anymore, they just follow.
Alexandrian Kings
The Alexandrians assembled
to see Cleopatra’s children
Caesarion and his little brothers
Alexander and Ptolemy
who for the first time
were taken out to the Gymnasium
to be proclaimed as kings
amidst a bright array of soldiers.
Alexander—he was named King
of Armenia, Media, and of the Parthians
Ptolemy—he was named King
of Cilicia, Syria, and of Phoenicia.
Caesarion stood in front
dressed in pink silk
garland of hyacinths at his breast
belt a double row of sapphires and amethysts
shoes tied by white ribbons
embroidered with rose-colored pearls.
He was named greater than the little ones.
He was named King of Kings.
The Alexandrians understood, Yes,
it was all theatrics and talk
but the day was warm and poetic
the sky light blue
Alexander’s gymnasium an
awesome triumph of art
the courtiers’ opulence exceptional
Caesarion all grace and beauty
(Cleopatra’s son, blood of the Lagids).
And still the Alexandrians ran to the fun
enthusiastic and cheering
Greek Egyptian even Hebrew
enchanted by the beautiful sight
although, Yes, they knew what it was worth
what empty words were these kingdoms.
Come Back
Come back again and again and take me
sensation I love, come back and take me
whenever body’s remembering wakes
and old desire runs through the blood again
whenever lips and skin remember
and hands sense they are touching again.
Come back again and again and take me at night
whenever lips and skin remember. . . .
At Church
I love church, its seraphim,
silver appointments, candlesticks,
pulpit, icons, lights.
When I enter there, in the church of the Greeks
with fragrance of incense
liturgical voices and harmonies
the priests’ grand presence
the sober rhythm of their every gesture
splendid in the attire of their vestments
my mind goes to the great honors of our race
to our glorious spirit of Byzantium.
Very Rarely
He is an old man exhausted and bent
crippled by years and abuse
slowly he goes through the alley
but once inside his house to hide
the state he is in and his age
he rehearses what portion of youth he still has.
Now the young men quote his lines
in their lively eyes his fantasies pass.
Their sound and sensual minds
their nicely contoured tight-knit flesh
it is his display of beauty that arouses.
To the Extent that You Can
Even if you can’t
make of your life what you want,
try this at least
to the extent that you can.
Do not devalue your life
by being too much in touch with society
too much to-and-fro and chat.
Do not devalue your life by escorting it,
turning it constantly about and exposing it
to the every day nonsense
of relationships and parties,
until it turns foreign, a burden.
The Shop’s
He wrapped them up carefully one by one
in a rich green silk: roses made of rubies
lilies of pearl, violets out of amethysts.
So he prefers them, wants them,
thinks they look nice, and not
as he saw them in nature
not as he studied them there.
He will leave them in the safe
index to skillful audacious work.
When a buyer walks into the store
he takes from his case other things to sell
fabulous baubles: bracelets, chains
necklaces and rings.
I Went
I was not constrained
I let myself fully go.
I went to pleasures
half of them acted and half
just rehearsed in my head.
In the luminous night I went out
and I drank from strong wines
exactly those that heroes of sensual pleasure quaff.
The Tomb of the Grammarian Lysias
Nearest on the right as you enter the library
in Beirut we buried Lysias , the learned
grammarian. The place is gorgeously appropriate.
We put him close to the things
he may remember even there:
commentaries, texts, and grammars,
documents, a lot of interpretation
in fascicules of Hellenism;
and that way too his tomb will be seen
and honored by us
whenever we go to the books.
Eurion’s Grave
In this exquisite tomb all of syenite stone
—a profusion of violets and lilies covers it over—
fair Eurion rests, Alexandrian lad of twenty-five.
old Macedonian family on his father’s side,
on his mother’s he descended from alabarchs.
He studied philosophy with Aristokleitos, rhetoric with Paros.
At Thebes he studied holy writ.
He composed a history of the Arsinoite nome.
This at least will last, but we have lost
the most precious thing, his countenance.
It was a vision of Apollo.
Chandelier
In a small empty room, just four walls
covered with plain green cloth
a handsome chandelier burns bright
and in each of its flames there glows
venery’s affect, venery’s rush.
In the small room
, brightly lit,
by the strong flame of the chandelier,
it is not at all an ordinary flame that comes out.
It is not made for timid folk,
the pleasure of this heat.
Long Ago
I would like to speak about this memory
but the way it’s been wiped out now—
as if nothing is left
because it is long ago
in my first pubescent years.
Skin as of jasmine
that August—was it August?—evening.
I barely remember the eyes now.
They were—I am sure—blue
Ah yes—blue—a sapphire blue.
But Wise Men, Approaching Events
“Because gods perceive the future; humans, what is happening; wise men, what draws near.”
Philostratus, Apollonios of Tyanea 8.7
Humans recognize what is happening;
gods know what will be,
full and sole possessors of all light.
From what will be, wise men apprehend
what events draw near. Their sound
sometimes in hours of serious study
is troubling: it comes, calls for initiates
telling them what draws near,
and they are ready and attend,
while those in the road outside,
the people, they hear nothing.
Theodotos
If you really are of the elect
see how you acquire your dominance .
For all that you are glorified
for all that sovereign states recount
your successes in Italy and Thessaly
for all the decrees your enthusiasts
brought out in your honor at Rome
your joy will not last, nor your triumph
you will not feel yourself
superior—why superior?—
when Theodotos brings to you
on a bloody dish at Alexandria
wretched Pompey’s head.
And don’t in reliance
on the mode of your life
limited, ordered, and dull
suppose that such fearful
spectaculars do not exist.
He may this very hour be entering
some neighbor’s prim house
unseen, insensible, Theodotos,