Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Anonymous Papyrus Fragment, Ancient Messene, Date Unknown but Later Than You Think


Fields we had
[        ]
[        ]

[perforated]

[ now?]
[        ]
[        ]
[        ]

[shredded wheat]

Ely[sian?] with honey
[        ]
[        ]
[        ]
[        ]

Bees combing long
[        ] [flaxen?]       

Hair [       ]

[         ]
[         ]
[         ]
[down?]

To your knees      

[the rest wholly eaten away by moths]








4 comments:

  1. A masterpiece (and pieces of a master). Great poem...

    ReplyDelete
  2. fragments
    &
    Her

    [long black
    hair}

    ung down

    & again

    frag-ments

    - the 'stuff' of
    just-waht-is

    possibilities

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful. Once again I echo the Chant.

    Having been fed and sated at this generous palimpsestic table, I now brush away the crumbs of the variori from the folds of my robes.

    And find these glittering with a curious unearthly light, much as was said to gleam out from the glove box in which the grain of wheat of the Eleusinian Mysteries was kept.

    (Or wait, was that a breakfast cereal?)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such complimentary comments force me to admit the driving force inspiring this tattered, ragged poetic effort is Guy Davenport's wonderful Carmina Archilochi: The Fragments of Archilochos--a tour-de-force by anybody's book (not bad--that's three "forces" (JC, EB, TC) in only one sentence). Thank you, gentlemen.

    ReplyDelete

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