J U N E 1 9 9 8 ![]() FROM THE GREEKPoems translated by Brooks Haxton | |||||||||||||
See "Children of Orpheus," a companion essay by David Barber (Atlantic Unbound, June 10, 1998). |
![]() | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read this poem (in RealAudio): RA 28.8, RA 14.4 (For help, see a note about the audio.) |
SingerShe took the myrtle branch and sang in turnanother song of pleasure, in her left hand still the flower of the rosetree, and let loose over her naked shoulder, down her arm and back, the darkness of her hair. ARCHILOCHOS, 7th century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Adonis and AphroditeFrom the wound death spreads into the delicate limbs.What shall we do for him, Goddess? Cry. Rip the coarse stitch of your robe, my girls, and cry, and tear the fine threads underneath. SAPPHO, 7th century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Last Sun in the TreetopsFrom her roost the water hen stretched outher purple-green sleek neck, the kingfisher's quick glance shook droplets from his crown, and I thought love would always be that brilliant on the wing and wild. IBYKOS, 6th century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Epitaph at ThermopylaeFour thousand of us fought three million.When you visit Sparta, tell them: Here, the soldiers kept their word. SIMONIDES, 5th century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Love TokenI am an apple thrown to you for love. Nod yes,Xanthippe. You and I, though sweet, are not to last. PLATO, 4th century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Herakleitos of HalikarnassosSomeone, Herakleitos, spoke to me about your death,and I with fresh tears thought again how many times the two of us would talk until the sun sank. You, too many years ago, though sacred in my memory forever as a guest and friend, sank also into ashes. Here, meanwhile, your poems sing to me like nightingales, only out of the darkness where no hand can reach. KALLIMACHOS, 3rd century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Landscape With Young Man and SnaresWhatever sleep possesses you, your bodyon the leaf-strewn hillside, stakes sunk into the ground, whatever weariness in you needs rest, beware. Nearby, Priapus, with his lovely rough head clothed in yellow shoots of ivy, and Great Pan steal, side by side, into your hiding place. Come, loose your body from its torpor: run! THEOKRITOS, 3rd century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Idea of BeautyShy, he stepped off into the cornfield. I could seehis back muscles under the damp shirt quiver and go slack. Turning again to face the shade, he smiled at me, not squinted, smiled, and finished tugging shut his fly. Now, when the cornstalks in the night wind slide like fire, I see him. He steps closer in my dream. I don't know, where he sleeps, if sleep refreshes him, but here it works me like hot metal over a flame. MELEAGROS, 3rd century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
On the Emptiness of the TombA black squall out of the east, and murk of night,and waves, struck under the deathwatch of Orion. I, the handsomest of sailors, drowned, halfway to Libya, tumbling into the fleshpots of the crab and conger eel. My stone says, Here Love mourns where Beauty lies undone, but nobody lies or mourns there but the stone. LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM, 3rd century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
CharonYou who pull the oars, who meet the dead,who leave them at the other bank, and glide across the reedy marsh, please take my boy's hand as he climbs into the dark hull. Look. The sandals trip him, and you see, he is afraid to step there barefoot. ZONAS, 1st century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 |
Inner VoiceA voice said, No: forget her touch, and keep in mindthose nights of jealousy and tears. Be strong, the voice reminded me, as she was strong when she said, Yes, and crowed, and grappled you for joy between her thighs. PHILODEMOS, 1st century B.C.E. | ||||||||||||
Hear Brooks Haxton read: RA 28.8, RA 14.4 Also by Brooks Haxton: Sanskrit by First Snowfall (1997) Molybdenum (1995) The Body of My Brother Osiris Is in the Mustard Seed (1994) Return to: An Audible Anthology Poetry Pages |
EchoUp and down the meadow where the sheep graze echo,fadingly as afterthoughts, the cries of quail. SATYRUS, 2nd century C.E. Brooks Haxton is a resident poet at Syracuse University. His most recent book of poems is The Sun at Night (1995). Haxton is at work on a book of translations of Greek poets. Copyright © 1998 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; June 1998; From the Greek; Volume 281, No. 6; page 96. |
||||||||||||
|