Athens 2016 - And with confidence in his judgment [poem]

[This a thank you to Stephen Mitchell, translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey, both of which I've taken the opportunity to read whilst in Athens.]

[Needless to say, both the dactylic hexameter of Homer's original and the 'minimally iambic five-beat line' of Mitchell's translations are beyond me, so I stuck to a good-old-fashioned sonnet for safety's sake.]

And with confidence in his judgment…

I sat in sand-swept Pylos like a king

and asked that I might find the words to sing

my thanks to he that journeyed back in time

to bring the matchless gifts of Homer’s rhyme.

As when the juices from the finest peach

elide the tongue and memory to teach

the lesson – while the flesh will feed us now

the stone inside begets tomorrow’s bough –

so too the master offers to his guest

the treasures that will live within his breast,

not merely to fulfil each given role

but truly to refresh the weary soul.

One day, of course, the story will be gone;

for now – thank Zeus! – the odyssey goes on.

[If there's a photo down here it was added August 2017 as part of blog refresh.  Photo is either mine or is linked to where I found it. Make of either what you will.]