To Orpheus
This summer, under the constellation of the Lyre, we remain
sceptical.
What was the use of enchanting Hades and Persephone with
your song
and they returned Eurydice to you? You, doubting your powers,
turned back to re-assure yourself and she vanished again into
the kingdom of shadows under the poplars.
Then, stooped by the powers of the impossible, you
taught the ultimate solitude of truth to the Lyre. For this neither men
nor Gods forgave you. The Maenads tore your body to pieces
by the banks of Hebros. Only your Lyre and your head, swept by
the currents, reached Lesbos.
What then is the justification of your song?
Perhaps the momentary mixing (a false image the least) of light
and darkness? Or perhaps that the Muses hang your Lyre at
the exact center of the stars?
Under this constellation, in the summer of this year, we remain
sceptical.
Manolis Aligizakis 