Odysseus
Wandering Odysseus
After the nightfall when the raging fire kindled Troy,
Among the clashing weapons and the tumults of discord the warriors shouted in joy,
From Illium's rampart Aenea fled,
Amidst the spreading hate,
Like a dreadful demigod in the fire-ridden city I stood by the blazing light,
And saw how pillars of the palace crumbled in front of my terrible might.
Then capturing the enemy's queen as my bride,
Who had seen the death and murder of her husband with fear and anguish in her sight,
I passed by the pyres that had made Illium red,
And went to the seashore to return home and hoped to escape the wandering as destined by fate.
After coming out of the fiery Hell,
I felt disoriented and asked myself in which direction I should sail,
As I moved the storm-clouds bearing thunders and clouds appeared in the sky,
And the lightening flashing from Neptune's trident gave fate's harsh reply.
From the high vault the gods hurled me in the merciless waves,
And the fearful lightening the fear of death all around displayed.
Like a lonely sailor tossed by the waves,
Through crags and cliffs I journeyed through yonder caves,
The beauty of the splendid light cascaded as chains,
And balanced the fear of the night that benumbed me in suffering and pain.
When in buffeted anguish the sea devoured all,
The mist enwrapped the colossal fire leaping over the sea as a hellish ball,
In the cascading light,
Aglow in the dark tracks of the night,
On the ocean waves,
In the fire I drenched and laved.
When in nature's wrath,
Like a dragon let loose in the sea, from the high vault the lightening jagged,
With the pounding beats of the heart I clasped the oars to bring me ashore,
The waves tossed me with their ferocious roars.
In a ship carrying the war's spoil,
When I felt left to doom in toil,
I heard the curse of the queen damning me in a witch- like voice:
Her house in ashes, her royal palace disappearing in smoke,
Massive walls of fortification destroyed that carry no more any strength of defence and hope,
In every corner of the city only the conquerors' sprawling plundering hands ,
That bringing down to ruin all that stand,
Looted, burnt, raped with atrocities that only the plundering hearts could satisfy,
I heard from her mouth the words of appalling agony and cry.
She was Paris' mother and Priam's wife,
Who, when she had given birth to Paris, the seducer of the queen of heart's moonlight,
Had dreamt of the serpents of fire licking the city at night,
From whose ashes as a booty from Troy,
I had taken her the prisoner of my own pleasure and joy.
As prophetess Cassandra's mother when she my destiny foretold,
I drew out my sword,
And clutching her hair I savagely tried by force to stop that wicked tongue and her constant Trojan boast.
But feeling a sympathy for her beauty every time I spared her throat,
She cursed me as a witch, as the war's fearful ghost.
She told me that disasters will fall, woes will plague,
Faggots will rise and consume my life in the destiny's blaze,
In every sea I shall sail,
The fire will hail,
On every shore I shall land,
The beasts of passions will chase again and again to the strands,
From every tomb where the mothers have wept,
The funeral cries will follow in hate .
Thus when she wept sorrowing for the daughter, whom I had sacrificed in the Achilles' tomb,
And cried for Hector and Paris - her murdered sons,
The panic struck my heart ,
And I drew her blood.
Thus when the weeping was over with her death,
I sought peace by burying her in the witches' grave.
After a short recess when the sea had calmed to give me the chance to bury her and erect on her grave a witch's tomb ,
Like Etna's volcano the sky spewed the darkest fumes under which my ship again to a hopeless fear succumbed.
Dashing along the sea in the darkness I reached the shore of the Cyclopes living in the den,
Where the barbarian giants slaughtered and devoured beasts and men,
Around a burning crater in an everlasting fire fed as a furnace of flesh from which they their powers forged,
They lived in caves where they constantly drank and gorged.
As I escaped by blinding the Cyclopes with a fire-drill that I had to invent,
Where the shore amidst the cliffs had been marked with indents,
I was chased by the hurling rocks and the stones unhewn,
And thrown again in the tumult of the sea that washed me over the craters and the dunes.
After overcoming the danger of the Cyclopes' rage,
I moved towards the Island of the Dawn as the destiny had presaged.
Repairing the boat and replacing the oars as I moved in search of land,
From the latticed stern,
Soon a beautiful Island I discerned.
It seemed to me that all perils had passed,
And I had arrived to a shore of beauty and peace at last.
I sped in order to survey ,
The pleasant shore, where I felt like halting for a few days on my way,
After the destruction's brink,
The sight of the land of fresh vines ripe and green ,
Brought many sweet thoughts and dream.
" The fate has given me a chance to escape the curse" I thought,
And made sacrifices to the gods, believing that they decide over the human lots.
Confronting the danger on the sea, the passion, that had remained for days unsought,
Reappeared again in the mind and ruled my thoughts.
For the joys and pleasures, that are untasted, in the withering senses again the passions unveiled,
Therefore I sent my sailors to the palace of the queen of the island to enquire about the palace inmates.
As the sailors - hungry and unfed - reached the palace of the beauteous queen,
They drank from her hands honey mixed with herbs and wine,
And immediately turned into beastly swine.
Seeing their delays as I went to find out what could have fallen to my men in a place that seemed so friendly and secure,
I also went towards the palace,
Along the way I met a stranger, who gave me a molly on the shore,
And told me to use it against the power of the witches of the island, who possessed the magic to turn men into filthy swine ,
And advised me not to touch her wine.
There I found the sailors wagging in a mire in front of the palace door,
She was sitting in a throne as a goddess and a whore.
As soon as I saw the queen, guarded by beasts, and chanting rhymes while girdling the animals in chains,
I felt a deep love for the beauty that had still remained in my heart unchanged,
As my eyes caught her eyes as they passed by,
Forgetting the time of distress the temptation of love came nigh,
As she threw her smile,
Baffled by her wile,
A sickness of love came as a murmuring tide,
A flame of the hidden fire caught the blood igniting her beauty's light,
Like an alert arrow piercing the lust,
It drove the strength of reason from my will apart,
In the weakness of love my heart trifled with distress,
Like a captive of the queen I sought her as my consort or mistress.
As she rose from her throne, lifted the cup to my lips and threw her embrace,
Feeling a sudden spurn of fear I touched the molly on her breast and face,
As if endangered by a divine power in my hand she fell in front of me in regret,
Thus I triumphed over her witchcraft with the power that seemed very sacred.
When subdued and cured of the wickedness, with which she could wile,
I felt saved from the hands of the beauty that was vile,
I lived with her in the Island of the Dawn for a while.
One night when I came by the sea to refresh my mind where all tidings of love with the unearthly world's tidings met,
I heard the footsteps of the stranger on the shore who had handed to me the molly's secret,
He asked me to prepare the boat and set in a new journey as destined by fate.
In the time of departing,
I did not know why, where ...which land to tell ?
I only knew that I must bid the beauty farewell.
Drooped in agony she raised her eyes as the shinning goddess of the darkened sky,
And came to the shore to say to me in the moonlight the words of good-by.
She told me that in the Ocean stream,
Where the life and the death spring,
If I libation bring,
The souls will appear in their invisible wings.
As I mutely clasped her in my chest,
Kissed her forehead and asked her to pray for the best,
And promised to return again if destiny so behests,
She told me about the soothsayer who could see beyond the world of the sun and the moon spanned between east and west,
This soothsayer knows where my destiny may give me a rest.
As I left the hopeless past and moved towards the unknown future,
The days of war, love and adventure,
The words, deeds, thoughts I wished to remember no more,
Came again as rushing waves of life and drew my heart as a ship from that beauty's shore.
SOOTHSAYER’S WARNING: Destiny bound in the hands of the witch goddess
On the way marvellous bizarre monsters, who are half birds and half women, will sing in their sweet voice,
Beguiled by their harmonious music your heart will be torn to make a choice,
Though they will burn your heart,
Do not be eluded by their clever art,
With beautiful gesture as they will welcome you and receive with their sweet caresses,
Closing your ears and eyes, binding yourself to the mast escape these death's deadly mistresses,
Stay away from the harbour where the sea , amidst heart's sprays, foams and fumes,
Will revel in their tuneful staves and tunes,
If you land on their shore,
Be rest assured,
Like wicked witches they will draw you down till you will drown,
With claws and beaks they will scatter the bones, blood and flesh around,
Therefore though in the moments of the festive enchantment the heart will desire,
Do not leap into this death's singing fire.
O Sisyphus's progeny ! to whom the suffering is not a stranger,
Though you will be able to overcome this danger,
Your ever star-crossed tragic fate,
Will bring you nearer a hellish gate.
In order to hurl you away from the ship,
Furious gales will stir the ocean from the deep,
Swirling water swallowing wind's pounding beats will vomit up fear,
But try not to come its near.
Where the towering mass of rocks will hang over the passage through which you must pass,
Monstrous sea will roll in notorious gush,
Swallowing the water pouring from the rocks the gulf will swell like a womb,
Through it you will see the darkened world's nefarious tomb.
To one side you will see Scylla's rising head,
Once a beautiful maid,
Whom the witch-goddess with her witchcraft had turned into a monster whose limb have transformed as the mouths of the hounds of hell guarding the dead,
As she will guard the passage through which you are destined to sail,
Her thighs and legs, rooted in the depth of the sea, will come to devour you in a fire of hell ,
With each pinnacle you will pass,
The struggle to escape the danger will be more and more harsh,
The roaring waves soaring with the storm spouting on the rocks the spewing streams,
Will throw your ship in the spinning wind,
In the whirling eddies you will be threatened to be sucked inside life's darkened whirlpools of cry or scream.
If you wish to return home,
You must hold yourself away from this Charybdis' water churning the gulf in the danger of passion's foams.
When the strength of the ship will not hold against the onslaught of the waves where most sailors are destined to perish,
Leap from the wreckage and swim towards the direction where you will see the rays of the goddess Iris.
If you let your mind prostrate before her throne,
She will throw rays from her magic crystal stone,
And will save you from the dreadful vortexes that your life sought,
And will help you to escape the drag of the ocean that is tempest-wrought.
Then you will come ashore a fruitful land,
Where lovely light from the sky burnish its blessed sand.
It is a sea-girt island whose coast is embraced with the happy arms of the mountain that receive opulent gifts from of the sun,
Like its queen's beauty that has a gentle blaze,
The meadows are lovely in verdure glaze,
The flower and the faunas bemuse in all hearts with their wonderful gaze.
There the sun rays glint but never scorch,
They open the eyes to the beauty of the earth instead of blinding them with the power of a fiery torch.
Under the aery ridges, and the jagged peaks, where the brooks and the springs teem in slopes and mead,
The fleecy flocks pasture under the sun beside the Hyperon's steeds,
The horned cattle feed on the grass,
In the golden beam the mountains dream,
In dewy-drenched leas,
The queen of the island fountains lease,
And thus in mortal hearts the love's eternal spring release.
There you will see the timeless wood,
Where the trees stand upright and do not rear the branches that turn and crook,
There nothing is stubborn or stiff,
In the gentle breeze one will hear the songs of love and the heart will never come to weep,
There bliss will reign,
Pure light , that beauty's wonder bears,
Will lift the mind away from the flames and tears,
You will not even know when the heart will fall in her beauty's embrace,
Because in this land of immortal love every passion will spoil her beauty's grace.
Wearing festive dress,
The flower-girls of the queen with flower studded tress,
To crown the sailors, who come to take from its shore the pure world's hope and breath,
Will thread beauty's power in their hands as flowery wreaths.
When the happiness will thus grow,
In a fairy dream of love the heart will see the immortal life's blissful road,
With the eyes of the seer,
I foresee the hands of the destiny , who has no peer,
That will drag you again in a new journey through the wretched world's tumults and tears.
The stranger, who you had met in the Island of Dawn,
Will reappear again to fetch you home where you will be killed by your son.
You have to start once again in the dangerous journey like the wanderer, who is goddess' and witch's dear,
It is all destined by the hands of destiny that you will not be able to avoid ,
Although the goddess or witch will try to hold you captive in the islands with her love and tear.
After being crushed and thrown on the shore where you will sleep naked in a world, that is lonely and wild,
You will be awakened by the goddess carrying shield, spear and light.
Then you will arrive home to see the barbarous kings had opened in your palace the pleasure's feast,
And turned your house as a brothel where men are no different than beasts,
When you will at last know that the suitors disporting themselves by slaughtering your sheep and drinking your wine,
Have tried to seduce your wife and planned to murder you treacherously by attacking you from behind,
The anger will rise,
The fire and fume will burn in your mind and you will challenge them and bring to them death's dreadful surprise,
With clashing weapons brandishing the air in crushing hate,
The war and blood will follow you again as your unavoidable fate,
The weapons will pierce, smash and twist the bodies in welter of blood,
In a ground sodden with the warmth , pouring from the hearts , a poisonous river will rush and flood,
Stirring up anger, fire and smoke,
Groans and cries of the wounded and the dying will fill the air in which all will choke,
The bleeding spectres of Hector or Priam ,
Or their off springs whom you had killed to win victory and triumph,
Will follow you as a punishment of an inexpiable sin,
And draw you in a endless war of life that you wish no more to begin.
More higher you will try to rise to make your assault,
Deeper you will fall,
In the Ocean stream where you hear about your destiny you will again and again return with a hope to avoid the fate that these fears recall.
I have now told you the way the fate has destined you to go.
Look there where the blind Oedipus stands,
From him you may know the rest of the destiny's plan.
TO THE Moon Island