SCULPTOR OF TYANA
As you may have heard, I am not a beginner.
Some good quantity of stone goes through my hands.
And in my home country, Tyana, they know me
well; and here the senators have ordered
a number of statues from me.
Let me show you
some right now. Have a good look at this Rhea;
venerable, full of forbearance, really ancient.
Look closely at Pompey. Marius,
Aemilius Paulus, the African Scipio.
True resemblances, as true as I could make them,
Patroklos (I’ll have to touch him up a bit).
Close to those pieces
of yellowish marble over there, is Caesarion.
And for a while now I have been busy
creating a Poseidon. I carefully study
his horses in particular, how to shape them.
They have to be so light that their bodies,
their legs, show that they don’t touch
the earth, but run over water.
But here is my most beloved creation,
that I worked with such feeling and great care
on a warm summer day,
when my mind ascended to the ideals,
I had a dream of him, this young Hermes.
Manolis Aligizakis 