fallen leaf, 29-32
29
our
land rests here
choose;
reach
30
seer
alone
release
done
I saw
These
beneath the
31
gods and you
the spell
first to speak
shares the
gifts to
the oldest
her
32
the gods’
gaoler, fastening
To him she left
Beautiful
children
these
all her neighbors
wooed
names and unused words
- 29
Alcinoüs; let But all all until hence shall be should send for my by more events be -
30
Iphiclus, Leda; kine of haughty vented, harsh were spent, as was sons in a kind -
31
by one your houses of of work rest and one and height -
32
Amphion, Orchomenus; beauty after men beside
source
derived from a single leaf of
The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer (1842-1933 *), Book XI around lines 262-368
see (Harvard copy, 1921 edition) at google books
and/or (Toronto copy, 1894 edition) at archive.org
and/or (University of California copy, 1912 edition) at hathitrust
(source page from a different (and unknown) edition/printing; other scans can be accessed via the above locations.)
in brief —
folded that leaf four times, for a signature of 32 pages. rearranged (and may accidentally have shuffled) those, to read right. transcribed only words (including names) that were fully visible, ignored all else (i.e., the letters of words that bled off the pages or into the gutter).
created 32 just- or barely-plausible verse stanzas, one from each page, by whittling out words (and all names) until only these remain.
by “plausible,” I mean (1) working musically (internal and other rime, alliteration, pauses); (2, related) having internal tension, or tension from one stanza to another; and (3) occasioning at least the passing hint of meaning and/or significance.
—
8 of 8
tags:
fallen leaf; just-plausible verse; latihan
George Herbert Palmer; Homer