Lavishly colored serpents sunned themselves in hollows,
opened their sluggish eyes in narrow slits, and then 790
thrust still more deeply in the sun’s sweet dizziness.
Gazing on holy earth, the archer’s brains spread wide,
his dark eyes filled again with a more human glance,
and when at night he stretched to sleep with his small cub
he felt an azure flower in his thorny chest 795
bloom with a drop of honey in the untrodden calm.
He felt the gods grow lushly on the savage earth,
uncoiling their leaves quickly like the bloated leaves
of the banana trees that cast their fruit, then fall.
Within his flesh the lone man felt his heart and mind 800
and all the deep dark roots of his refulgent powers
thrive in luxuriant, monstrous growth like plants or beasts.
Earth and man’s soul rose up like trees within his mind,
the sky too rose, a flowering tree in the calm nights,
and he a quivering leaf—ah, might that day come soon 805
when he’d become a flower, a ripe fruit filled with seed,
then let the strong winds blow to sweep him far and wide!
Thus slowly in the forest solitude his mind
grew ripe and his heart sweetened with much brooding thought
until one night, when fires were lit and all stretched out 810
and like a loving father he’d portioned food to all,
poor Kentaur seized his courage, found his tongue, and said:
“Master, sad words float on my lips all night and day
but no one dares to tell you now of his heart’s pain.”
The lone man heard and his gall rose; he turned his head: 815
“It’s true! Your eyes shall never again look on his face!”
Startled, the guileless man then left that savage shade
who played with his wild leopard cub nor ate nor drank
but lay apart and watched the sky till his mind creaked.
It seemed the stars had changed the course that fate had set; 820
where were his old acquaintances of night, the stars,
which his night-wandering mind had taken for sure signs?
Gone was the Bull, the Eagle, and the Eagle’s Tail,
the Charioteer had set, and the Seven Sisters vanished,
the vast star-river had plunged into a dark abyss, 825
and the Yoked Seven Brothers plowed the sky’s foundation;
even the unshaken keystone of all stars, that led all ships,
seemed also to have changed its course and turned toward setting;
a strange new sky had suddenly burst above his head.
He turned to earth once more and fondled his wild cub, 830
her bow-taut and lean body, her fuzzy belly, her flanks,
her small yet sharp milk teeth which glittered in red gums,
until the handsome beast growled sweetly, stretched her claws
and lightly scratched his bitter chest with playful strokes.
Odysseus gazed on his own face in the leopard’s eyes: 835
“No son of mine has ever so sweetly sacked my heart;
only with you, my cub, have I felt my fatherhood;
in your sharp claws, your tumblings, and your eyes’ fierce sparks,
daughter, you hold the seed of my dread race immortal!”
At dawn they found them both immersed in a deep sleep, 840
and the small leopard had her strong and downy paws
softly entwined about her sleeping master’s pulsing throat.
Panting, they slowly pushed through a tree-packed ravine
until one morning swirling clouds hung heavily
on windswept peaks and covered the low brooding sky. 845
Lightning bolts zoned the earth, branches of trees lit up,
the zigzag fire chopped the trees with thundering sound;
beasts ran in terror, all the tumultuous forest howled,
the lion’s roar resounded and the jackal’s wail,
monkeys shrieked in the swaying boughs and huddled tight, 850
and the troop crouched in silence in old hollowed trunks.
Then all at once the wind fell and the wild storm raged;
a warm rain filled with fragrance struck and whipped the trees,
parched leaves and thick coarse blossoms gaped and smelled of musk
and all earth opened to gulp water deep in her bowels. 855
Then broad-rumped Kentaur, dripping like a river-beast,
his armpits hung with tangling vines and crinky moss,
sat stooped upon a moldy trunk and shook his head:
“Oho, my lads, we’re all bogged down! What a great shame
to go to Hades now like frogs, mudsoaked and smirched; 860
how those deadheads will burst with laughter to see our plight!”
But huddled in a tree’s old hulk, the lone man felt
an inexpressible joy, breathing the damp and mold
and the strong stench of beasts that in the cloudburst steamed.
He brooded on the lizards, geckoes, newts, and snakes 865
that, glued to earth, now listened to the world’s quick pulse
throbbing with fear like a vast heart deep in the ground.
His mind sank like a nude worm in the great downpour;
but bit by bit the weather cleared, the world grew light,
clouds drifted by in fleecy tufts, and wet leaves laughed 870
sun-washed on earth by all the raindrops’ seven hues.
The troop once more pushed down the road and sank in mud,
bright parrots whistled through the air and flashed their wings,
small beasts poked out and licked and dried themselves in sun,
and every backbone on earth laughed, refreshed by rain. 875
The lone man’s breast, too, laughed as though it were the wood’s
parched heart where it had rained and where the sun now shone,
his nostrils quivered with the smells of moistened earth,
and when they’d lit their fires at night and stretched to eat
he asked both of his friends with brotherly affection 880
to share a fat wild kid he’d killed along the way.
When they had licked it to the bone, the sated archer
slowly and with no joy or pain disclosed his thoughts:
“Aye, friends, I look upon the world and see two paths,
but still my mind has not resolved what road to take; 885
I’m thinking of the piper, lads, and of man’s heart.”
He stopped and stroked his cub until his mind grew calm
then told his friends about the piper’s wretched downfall;
sometimes he burst out laughing, but at times he stooped
and poked the fire to choke the hidden sighs that rose: 890
“When will the heart, that clinging burr, come to her senses?
She sets lime-twigs on earth to catch some birds, then goes
wool-gathering and gets caught herself, and starts to sing.”
Pot-bellied Kentaur deeply sighed and rose to leave:
“All of us, bone and soul, all push on toward our ruin. 895
To meet your doom by women’s kisses, wine, or sword
is not a heavy shame and suits the worthy man,
but to hack out a log and shape a rotten belly
and then, O nitwit, to forget without much cause
and worship your hand’s plaything as a god indeed— 900
ah, the heart’s leaves are four, and two of mine are ashes!”
But the stone-hearted man lay with his cub on earth,
listened to his soft-hearted friend sob in the trees,
then laughed, and in his bronze head steadied his mind firmly:
“I love each handsome hour, all twelve dappled pairs, 905
&nbs
p; brothers and sisters, white and black, and stroke them all,
but I love best that one great queen in each full round
from whose waist hang the heavy keys, who holds an ax
and, full of eyes, keeps standing watch in my heart’s core.
She watches how my friends walk, how their feet proceed, 910
nor will forgive a wrong step taken, nor give odds.
Alas, you stumbled, piper, and the sentry saw you!”
The lone man rooted up his friend, pruned his hard heart,
cast off those doomed to ruin, kept but useful friends,
for earth was not a sickbed, it was a field of battle! 915
He suddenly turned and longed to play with his wild cub,
but she, with bristling hair, with shaggy and cocked ears,
was listening to the far ravine, sniffing and trembling
as though she’d heard the sweet growl of a passing leopard
that called to his small sister’s long-lost grieving heart. 920
The lone man’s daughter then unsheathed her hidden claws
and honed them on a tree, growling with roused desire.
Odysseus struck her on the back with a small stone
and she snarled savagely until her milk teeth gleamed
and a small, small drop of blood moved in her flushed eyes; 925
but then she crouched and slowly clenched her strong front paws,
uncoiled them, slouched, and sluggishly approached her master:
“Daughter, I see you’ve cut new teeth, your strength has swelled;
greetings to my god’s fangs that now shine in your gums!”
The lone man spoke, then man and beast embraced and sank in sleep. 930
The night dreamt of the sun and broke into soft smiles,
women and men awoke at cockcrow and moved on,
and waters moved, the whole world moved with tail raised high.
In early dawn a slaked and strutting lion stalked
along the mountain slopes to drink at the wellhead; 935
he’d eaten a fat prey, for his chops dripped with blood.
Hearing the troop’s loud tramping in the woods, he stopped,
and as he looked on men serenely, his huge head
rose like the royal sun and shone in russet dawn.
Passing before him silently, the shuddering troop 940
glanced on the haughty monarch with a stifling fear,
and when they passed, the lion gently growled and yawned
then slouched off sluggishly, for he’d recalled his pool.
As they cut past the woods, the sun shot shafts on earth,
a light breeze gently breathed upon the treeless fields, 945
and as they scattered in the plain to search for roads
they suddenly saw a large town wedged in a deep gulch.
At once both joy and fear surged through their famished guts,
the town now seemed like a ripe fruit to their starved eyes,
and all sat silently on earth to plan the plucking. 950
While they were weighing ways of cunning or of force
they heard drums beating in the gulch, whistling in trees,
and suddenly, even before they could unsling their bows,
they saw nude demon-driven blacks scatter and run:
their hair, in cockscomb tufts, flapped in the wind like wings, 955
long painted phalli gleamed about their grimy necks,
lean crimson flames in thick paints danced about their loins,
yet when they saw white bodies, they fell prone with fear.
But when the archer smiled, they lost their sudden dread,
slowly approached and groped at the white forms of air, 960
suddenly screeched like birds as their brains flashed, and then,
to keep from stifling with the joy that crushed their breasts,
they caught each other’s shoulders and broke in swirling dance.
They were black braves who had not yet enjoyed the taste
of a girl’s body and who in wastelands strove with dance 965
to rape the ripe maid of their roused imaginations.
They shrieked and growled like rutting beasts, their filed teeth gleamed,
they swayed their lean arms like the black swan’s supple neck
and stroked invisible forms with their red-painted palms.
When their roused bodies wearied and their minds calmed down, 970
the youths sat cross-legged on the ground and with cracked cries
told how they’d lived alone for months in the dark woods.
Their loins had ripened, their black cheeks had bloomed with down,
and now before they’d enter manhood and know woman
they hailed their savage virgin youth with dance and laughter. 975
In the next moon they’d dash to town with shouts and drums
and swirl in warlike dance about their holy oak,
and then when maids approached them with their supple thighs
they’d rush upon them in the holy heat of dance
and thrust their seed deep in that flood of swooning flesh. 980
Smiling, the much-tormented man rejoiced to see
animals, men, and birds that with wings, song, and musk
decked themselves out for nuptial rites each gaudy spring.
The seed adorns itself with crimson and green wings
like a prodigious bird that flits from tree to tree, 985
a brightly plumaged chieftain with a red-tipped spear.
But though the archer watched the seed decked like a groom,
he still remembered their bare stomachs, and asked for food.
A young brave smiled with glee and slapped him on the back:
“Don’t worry, your sunk bellies will rise as round as drums, 990
for we’ve changed masters in our town, a new king’s come,
a pure white spirit, and the glad people still carouse.”
Odysseus calmed, and when the blacks spread through the woods
he turned to his exhausted wolf-pack and consoled them:
“Be patient yet awhile, my lads; tighten your belts, 995
and in dawn’s light I’ll thrust through town to reconnoiter;
my eyes are twitching, comrades, and my palms are itching.” 997
Hope calmed and slaked their empty guts, all sank to sleep,
and when God dawned, the lone man woke and gave commands:
Kentaur was to remain in charge of all the troop 1000
while he and Granite scoured the town for food and drink.
“I thrust my hand in fire, and fate will cook us meat;
all things go well, my friends, so keep your trust in earth.”
He spoke, then lightly touched strong Granite’s iron shoulder
and both like two dumb beasts lunged downward toward the town. 1005
Trees woke and slowly drew apart, the town walls moved,
the sun leapt like a cock and crowed on all the roofs,
the blacks awoke and from their rooms peeped secretly
to watch the two beasts stalk with vigor through the town,
and maidens smeared their slippery bodies with date oil. 1010
Rocky, clad in his golden plumes, roamed sleeplessly
about his palace decked with skulls, pallid and sad,
for twelve black executioners trailed the votive beast.
He felt souls hang and weep about his pulsing throat
till pity suddenly smothered his once ruthless brain: 1015
ah, could he only cast a bit of light about him
and cleanse the conflagration of dark Africa!
The sun leapt to the ground and struck the palace walls
till the two columns in the doorway woke and shone.
About them climbed the creatures both of heaven and earth: 1020
a turtle straddled the low base, and on her back
a pure white elep
hant knelt with ivory tusks raised high
on whom a fiery lion crouched with blood-soaked mane;
a golden-feathered cock-god crowed on the fierce lion,
and on the cock a human pair lay tightly clasped; 1025
between them sprang a tall bronze spear that tossed in light
and on its tip, like a smoke wraith, there slowly flapped
a long blood-clotted strand of hair of the slain king.
Rocky stood still and marveled at the emblazoned shafts;
his turn had come to let his raven hair grow long 1030
that it too might one ritual day be nailed, pure white,
on the bronze spear to flutter in the indifferent wind.
He smiled with cunning to himself, then clapped his hands
and the doors opened to admit his eunuch slaves
who came to dress their chieftain with a festive robe 1035
coarse-woven and hung with crimson feathers, nests, and eggs,
for their great conjurer was to bless their king today.
Suddenly through the doorway two vast shadows swayed
and deeply darkened the red-painted, savage sill.
“Brother, I like these monstrous palace pillars well! 1040
Thus have I often carved man’s true shape in my mind:
treading the earth firmly, he mounts every step,
cleansing from godhead slowly, turning indeed to man,
till on the topmost step Death’s banner looms and flaps.”
Thus did the sage man speak as he strode past the door, 1045
but suddenly all the sentries screeched from the tall towers
and the black chieftains stretched on the earth and stripped their backs,
while their great sorcerer stumbled through them, as though dead drunk,
laden with jangling bells, horns, feathers, and strong charms.
Possessed by a dread god, he staggered and seized the king: 1050
“O short-lived chief, O passing bird of dead man’s realm,
I bless your hands, I bless your feet, your chest, your neck,
I bless your piercing eyes, but at your hair I stop
for I don’t see your black locks fluttering high in air!”
He stopped, and sweat dripped down his body like dark mud. 1055
The king caressed him, but he struck his hands with force:
“The black locks of your head will never mount and wave,
dripping with blood, upon our sacred pillar’s top;
you stand on a burnt castle like a blazing torch!”
He howled, then fell down frothing on the chieftains’ backs. 1060
“Through that great uproar, Granite, it seems to me I heard
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel Page 69
