REPETITIONS, SECOND SERIES

The True Glory of Bellerophon

He, who knows the splendid glory and the worst slander

and envy — he, the beautiful with the unique hair —

what gifts and favors, what golden harnesses, deeds, victories

and his rightful pride: that horse with the white wings, which

brought him to the thrones of the Gods, which, at the last

        hour

pushed him to emptiness, so he’d get to know it, so he’d get

to know himself and the world for the first time and for this

he deserved the poet’s verse:

                                                “He now saunters alone in

the Elysium Fields — all alone, next to thorns and fountains,

most handsome, almost watery, with no thirst or hunger”

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SUMMER SOLSTICE

2

They all see visions

but no one admits to it;

they keep on going believing they are alone.

The huge rose

was always here

next to you, deep in sleep

yours and unknown.

But only now that your lips touched it

in its innermost petals

you felt the dense weight of the dancer

who falls in the river of time—the terrible splash.

Don’t waste the meaning that this

breath of life has given you.

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THE FIRST STEP

One day the young poet Evmenis

complained to Theokritos;

“I have been writing for two years

and I have only composed one idyll.

It is my only completed work.

Alas, I see that the ladder of Poetry

is high, very high; unfortunately

I will never be able to rise

from where I stand at the bottom rung.”

Theokritos said, “These words

are inappropriate and blasphemous.

And even though you are on the first step

you must be proud and happy.

That you have reached this far is not little;

what you have accomplished, is a great glory.

For even this first step

is a step beyond the ordinary.

To have arrived where you stand now

you must be in your own right

a citizen of the city of ideas.

And it is hard and rare

to be naturalized in that city.

In her agora you find Lawmakers

that no arriviste can dupe.

That you have reached this place is not small thing.

You have accomplished a glory.”

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