'A certain man has been abroad for many years; he is alone, and the god Poseidon keeps a hostile eye on him. Then after suffering storm and shipwreck, he comes home.'
Aristotle's Summary of Homer's 2nd Epic
In my mind's eye I see
Odysseus, the king with empty hands,
stand by the great ship
glowing with his riches and legend.
The sun in Phaeacia blurs
ocean and land: shore and plain
converge with waves and winds.
Odysseus, on the day of departure,
blinks into the wine-bright Aegean.
Time and again he turns craning
toward the sun, impatient for day's end,
for the open sea. He no longer
needs to bear hope: Ithaca
he can reach without effort.
He could do it in his sleep.
The Phaeacians spread a rug
and linen blanket on deck.
Odysseus embarks, lies down,
lies still. They ferry his sleep
across the foaming purple night-sea.
Ghosts, busy with oars and sail,
flit passed his dreamless eyes,
as he surrenders, falls deeper
into the moon-life of sleep.
They pray his long-tried mind
will dissolve like sea-mist
engulfed in spreading sunlight.
At dawn they place him,
still asleep, on his native shore.
In utter silence they leave
him, a secret king alone
among ancestors and enemies, a man
equipped with the gods' own wisdom.
In the near distance
the gray-eyed goddess waits,
without sleep, smiling
over his mortal needs.
She muses, 'Soon the sleeper
and his mission will be one.'
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
In my mind's eye I see Odysseus, the king with empty hands, stand by the great ship glowing with his riches and legend. I was captured by the opening, magical lines of the first stanza which set the scene magnificently of this homecoming, healing journey. i read on, fascinated with the unfolding of your poem and was stunned with the final stanza. Beautifully penned Daniel :)
I enjoyed writing this poem. It has a musical quality I wanted and I cut out passages that didn't have the melody I sensed. O worked many stanzas over and over, but curiously the last stanza you like came whole, no effort needed, as if the goddess spoke