WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY
Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)
Vol. 1, No. 36: July 6, 2022
A
Garland of Stellar Poems in Honor of Tanabata, the Ancient Japanese Star Festival,
on July 7
https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00097/
The celestial story behind the Star Festival
concerns the bright stars Vega and Altair in the Summer Triangle. (Image
Credit: Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons)
“When the Shy Star Goes
Forth in Heaven”
By James Joyce (1882-1941)
When the shy star goes forth in heaven
All maidenly, disconsolate,
Hear you amid the drowsy even
One who is singing by your gate.
His song is softer than the dew
And he is come to visit you.
O bend no more in revery
When he at eventide is calling,
Nor muse: Who may this singer be
Whose song about my heart is falling?
Know you by this, the lover’s chant,
‘Tis I that am your visitant.
“To a
Star”
by
Lucretia Maria Davidson (1808-1825)
Thou
brightly-glittering star of even,
Thou gem
upon the brow of Heaven
Oh! were
this fluttering spirit free,
How quick
't would spread its wings to thee.
How
calmly, brightly dost thou shine,
Like the
pure lamp in Virtue's shrine!
Sure the
fair world which thou may'st boast
Was never
ransomed, never lost.
There,
beings pure as Heaven's own air,
Their
hopes, their joys together share;
While
hovering angels touch the string,
And
seraphs spread the sheltering wing.
There
cloudless days and brilliant nights,
Illumed by
Heaven's refulgent lights;
There
seasons, years, unnoticed roll,
And
unregretted by the soul.
Thou
little sparkling star of even,
Thou gem
upon an azure Heaven,
How
swiftly will I soar to thee,
When this
imprisoned soul is free!
Life
of Julius Caesar –
Chapter 88
By
Suetonius (ca. 69-122 CE))
It
was voted that the hall in which he was slain be walled up, that the Ides of
March be called the Day of Parricide, and that a meeting of the Senate should
never be called on that day.
Apotheosis
of Julius Caesar, painted by
Louis Laguerre (1692-1694), in the Entrance Hall, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire,
England. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
“The
Apotheosis of Julius Caesar”
Excerpted
from Book 15 of the Metamorphoses
By
Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE)
Translated
by Brooks More (1922)
Apollo's
son came to us from abroad,
but
Caesar is a god in his own land.
The
first in war and peace, he rose by wars,
which
closed in triumphs, and by civic deeds
to
glory quickly won, and even more
his
offspring's love exalted him as a new,
a
heavenly, sign and brightly flaming star.
Of
all the achievements of great Julius Caesar
not
one is more ennobling to his fame
than
being father of his glorious son.
Was
it more glorious for him to subdue
the
Britons guarded by their sheltering sea
or
lead his fleet victorious up the stream
seven
mouthed of the papyrus hearing Nile;
to
bring beneath the Roman people s rule
rebel
Numidia, Libyan Juba, and
strong
Pontus, proud of Mithridates' fame;
to
have some triumphs and deserve far more;
than
to be father of so great a man,
with
whom as ruler of the human race,
O
gods, you bless us past all reckoning?
And,
lest that son should come from mortal seed,
Julius
Caesar must change and be a god.
When
the golden mother of Aeneas was
aware
of this and saw a grievous end
plotted
against her high priest, saw the armed
conspiracy
preparing for his death,
with
pallid face she met each god and said:
“Look
with what might this plot prepares itself
against
my cause; with how much guile it dooms
the
head which is the last that I have left
from
old-time Julus, prince and heir of Troy.
Shall
I alone be harassed through all time
by
fear well grounded? First the son of Tydeus
must
wound me with his Calydonian spear;
and
then I tremble at the tottering walls
of
ill defended Troy; I watch my son
driven
in long wanderings, tossed upon the sea,
descending
to the realm of silent shades,
and
waging war with Turnus—or, if I should speak
the
truth, with Juno! Why do I recall
disasters
of my race from long ago?
The
present dread forbids my looking back
at
ills now past. See how the wicked swords
are
whetted for the crime! Forbid it now,
I
pray you, and prevent the deed,
let
not the priest's warm blood quench vestal fires!”
Such
words as these, full of her anxious thoughts,
Venus
proclaimed through all the heavens, in vain.
The
gods were moved, and, since they could not break
the
ancient sisters' iron decree, they gave
instead
clear portents of approaching woe.
It
is declared, resounding arms heard from
the
black clouds and unearthly trumpet blasts
and
clarions heard through all the highest heavens,
forewarned
men of the crime. The sad sun's face
gave
to the frightened world a livid light;
and
in the night-time torches seemed to burn
amid
the stars, and often drops of blood
fell
in rain-showers. Then Lucifer shone blue
with
all his visage stained by darksome rust.
The
chariot of the moon was sprinkled with
red
blood. The Stygian owl gave to the world
ill
omens. In a thousand places, tears
were
shed by the ivory statues. Dirges, too,
are
said to have been heard, and threatening words
by
unknown speakers in the sacred groves.
No
victim gave an omen of good life:
the
fibers showed great tumults imminent,
the
liver's cut-off edge was found among
the
entrails. In the Forum, it is said,
and
round men's homes and temples of the gods
dogs
howled all through the night, and silent shades
wandered
abroad, and earthquakes shook the city.
But
portents of the gods could not avert
the
plots of men and stay approaching fate.
Into
a temple naked swords were brought—
into
the Senate House. No other place
in
all our city was considered fit
for
perpetrating such a dreadful crime!
With
both hands Cytherea beat her breast,
and
in a cloud she strove to hide the last
of
great Aeneas' line, as in times past
she
had hid Paris from fierce Menelaus
Aeneas
from the blade of Diomed.
But
Jove, her father, cautioned her and said,
“Do
you my daughter, without aid, alone,
attempt
to change the fixed decrees of Fate?
Unaided
you may enter the abode
of
the three sisters and can witness there
a
register of deeds the future brings.
These,
wrought of brass and solid iron with
vast
labor, are unchangeable through all
eternity;
and have no weakening fears
of
thunder-shocks from heaven, nor from the rage
of
lightnings they are perfectly secure
from
all destruction. You will surely find
the
destinies of your descendants there,
engraved
in everlasting adamant.
'Tis
certain. I myself, have read them there:
and
I, with care have marked them in my mind.
I
will repeat them so that you may have
unerring
knowledge of those future days.
“Venus,
the man on whose behalf you are
so
anxious, already has completed his
allotted
time. The years are ended which
he
owed to life on earth. You with his son,
who
now as heir to his estate must bear
the
burden of that government, will cause
him,
as a deity, to reach the heavens,
and
to be worshipped in the temples here.
“The
valiant son will plan revenge on those
who
killed his father and will have our aid
in
all his battles. The defeated walls
of
scarred Mutina, which he will besiege,
shall
sue for peace. Pharsalia's plain will dread
his
power and Macedonian Philippi
be
drenched with blood a second time, the name
of
one acclaimed as ‘Great’ shall be subdued
in
the Sicilian waves. Then Egypt's queen,
wife
of the Roman general, Antony,
shall
fall, while vainly trusting in his word,
while
vainly threatening that our Capitol
must
be submissive to Canopus' power.
“Why
should I mention all the barbarous lands
and
nations east and west by ocean's rim?
Whatever
habitable earth contains
shall
bow to him, the sea shall serve his will!
“With
peace established over all the lands,
he
then will turn his mind to civil rule
and
as a prudent legislator will
enact
wise laws. And he will regulate
the
manners of his people by his own
example.
Looking forward to the days
of
future time and of posterity,
he
will command the offspring born of his
devoted
wife, to assume the imperial name
and
the burden of his cares. Nor till his age
shall
equal Nestor's years will he ascend
to
heavenly dwellings and his kindred stars.
Meanwhile
transform the soul, which shall be reft
from
this doomed body, to a starry light,
that
always god-like Julius may look down
in
future from his heavenly residence
upon
our Forum and our Capitol.”
Jupiter
hardly had pronounced these words,
when
kindly Venus, although seen by none,
stood
in the middle of the Senate-house,
and
caught from the dying limbs and trunk
of
her own Caesar his departing soul.
She
did not give it time so that it could
dissolve
in air, but bore it quickly up,
toward
all the stars of heaven; and on the way,
she
saw it gleam and blaze and set it free.
Above
the moon it mounted into heaven,
leaving
behind a long and fiery trail,
and
as a star it glittered in the sky.
There,
wondering at the younger Caesar's deeds,
Julius
confessed they were superior
to
all of his, and he rejoiced because
his
son was greater even than himself.
Although
the son forbade men to regard
his
own deeds as the: mightier! Fame, that moves
free
and untrammeled by the laws of men,
preferred
him even against his own desire
and
in that one point disobeyed his will.
And
so great Atreus yields to greater fame
of
Agamemnon, Aegeus yields to Theseus,
and
Peleus to Achilles, or, to name
a
parallel befitting these two gods,
so
Saturn yields to Jove. Now Jupiter
rules
in high heavens and is the suzerain
over
the waters and the world of shades,
and
now Augustus rules in all the lands—
so
each is both a father and a god.
Gods
who once guarded our Aeneas, when
both
swords and fire gave way, and native gods
of
Italy, and Father Quirinus—
patron
of Rome, and you Gradivus too—
the
sire of Quirinus the invincible,
and
Vesta hallowed among Caesar's gods,
and
Phoebus ever worshipped at his hearth,
and
Jupiter who rules the citadel
high
on Tarpeia's cliff, and other gods—
all
gods to whom a poet rightfully
and
with all piety may make appeal;
far
be that day—postponed beyond our time,
when
great Augustus shall forsake the earth
which
he now governs, and mount up to heaven,
from
that far height to hear his people's prayers!
“The Apotheosis of Ovid”
Excerpted from Book 15 of the Metamorphoses
By Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE)
Translated by Brooks More (1922)
And
now, I have completed a great work,
which
not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel,
nor
fast-consuming time can sweep away.
Whenever
it will, let the day come, which has
dominion
only over this mortal frame,
and
end for me the uncertain course of life.
Yet
in my better part I shall be borne
immortal,
far above the stars on high,
and
mine shall be a name indelible.
Wherever
Roman power extends her sway
over
the conquered lands, I shall be read
by
lips of men. If Poets' prophecies
have
any truth, through all the coming years
of
future ages, I shall live in fame.
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