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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 08/18/2021
  • 153 Words
  • 1,137 Views
  • 8 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 2. …to a Seventeen-year-old Boy on the Beach…

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...to a Seventeen-year-old Boy on the Beach...

 

A youth I saw was playing ball,

Seventeen years of age and tall;

From Cos he came, and well I wot

The Gods look kindly on that spot.

For when he took the ball or threw it,

So pleased were all of us to view it,

We cried aloud; so great his grace,

Such frank good humor in his face,

That every time he spoke or moved,

All felt as if that youth they loved.

Sure ne'er before had these eyes seen,

Nor ever since, so fair a mien;

Had I stayed long, most sad my plight

Would have been to lose my wits outright,

And even now this recollection

Disturbs my senses' calm reflection.

—Demoxenus,[i]

circa 275 BC

 

[after Yonge's translation]

 

 

 

[i] “A youth I saw was playing ball” Demoxenus quoted in Athenaeus Deipnosophists, 1.26

_

as noted
  • Love 9
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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AC Benus
17 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

I read this and was astonished at the year it was written. It’s a description of a timeless experience. This poet could have come to the park with me on any Saturday afternoon. 

Thanks, Parker. This is all part of the time-machine nature of poetry mentioned in the Prologue. Even Yonge's translation dates to the 1840s or 50s :)

Edited by AC Benus
  • Love 4
AC Benus
5 hours ago, D.K. Daniels said:

We've all seen these situations unfold, and sometimes you think back to your childhood. This captures nostalgia and innocence in such a sad, but beautiful way. Thanks for the addition. The idea is to treat myself every morning to a neat poem :) 

A wonderful idea! I'm glad I'm far along now and have lots and lots for you to go through in the Mirror.

Just reading the poem above again (for the millionth time; can't get enough of it), I'm struck once more how wonderfully free of homophobia Yonge's 1850s translation of Athenaeus is. Along these lines, not showing an anti-gay bias in translating an ancient Greek's writing, Yonge provides the most neutral (if not Gay-positive) rendering of this work yet. In other words, no "modern" translator is as honest as he is 

Edited by AC Benus
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Backwoods Boy

This one came to my attention due to the recent comment by D.K. Daniels.  This, I completely understand and relate to.  Clearly, I need to spend some time reading this "book" from cover to cover.

As I read, I envisioned a twentieth-century sand-volleyball game.  Like Parker, I was astounded by the date.  To abuse a common expression, everything new is old again.

Edited by Backwoods Boy
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AC Benus
2 minutes ago, Backwoods Boy said:

This one came to my attention due to the recent comment by D.K. Daniels.  This, I completely understand and relate to.  Clearly, I need to spend some time reading this "book" from cover to cover.

As I read, I envisioned a twentieth-century sand-volleyball game.  Like Parker, I was astounded by the date.  To abuse a common expression, everything new is old again.

Volleyball! Yes, it's exactly what I see each time I read this poem. It's an incredible snapshot, and as someone much wiser than I am, once said: "Poetry is the best time machine humanity is likely to ever have." Dates be damned! It's what lives in our heats as humans that matters :yes:

(And, as for Athenseus' time machine, I believe this is the only poem by Demoxenus to have survived to the modern day . . . )   

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