The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald is a brilliant
biography of her father and three brothers, evocative of what is most
admirable - his cleverness, integrity, zest for life and all that religion
represents – the calm and the turmoil.
A motif throughout the book is this poem, deemed to be ‘an
extract and faithful translation… the rendering by William Johnson Cory, of a
Greek epigram’
********************************************************
“They told
me, Herachitus, they told me
you
were dead,
They
brought me bitter news to hear,
Bitter
tears to shed.
I wept when
I remembered now,
Often you
and I
Had tired
the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now
that thou art lying,
My dear Ol’
Carian guest,
A handful
of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest
Still are
thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales awake
For death
he taketh all away
But then he
cannot take."
********************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment