Epigrams
for Empire
Mackail’s
twelve ‘Chapters’
I.
Love
II.
Prayers
and Dedications
III.
Epitaphs
IV.
Literature
and Art
V.
Religion
VI.
Nature
VII. The Family
VIII.
Beauty
IX.
Fate
and Change
X.
The
Human Comedy
XI.
Death
XII. Life
Butcher:
Greek as brain gym…and soul food
Greek
‘leisure’ is sometimes spoken of slightingly as if it were the luxury of the
rich or the dilettanti… But in truth it is not the opposite of activity, but a
special form of activity, the strenuous exercise of the intellectual or
artistic faculties. It is no state of blissful indolence, which is the ideal of
some Orientals… It is work, genuine work.
From
Baring’s preface
The
epigrams are, with a very few exceptions, selected from Mr. Mackail’s Select
Epigrams from the Greek Anthology. The classification and, in the great
majority of cases, the title of each epigram are also borrowed from Mr.
Mackail…
I beg
any one who may do me the honour of glancing at this little volume to bear in
mind that it is not the work of a scholar, or of even a very minor poet, but
that of a Government official who, during the leisure moments of a somewhat
busy life, has dabbled a little in Greek literature, and has occasionally
amused himself by making verses — which is not always the same thing as writing
poetry.
Some
versions by Baring (from Mackail’s selection)
Love’s Drink
Ah, Cup of sweetness, lasting joy is thine,
My love’s own honeyed mouth has given thee bliss!
Would that she now would join her lips to mine,
And drain my very soul in one long kiss!
On a Slain Warrior
Timocritus lies here. Mars takes the brave,
And spares the coward for a nameless grave.
The Last Word
Thou talkest much, O man, but spare thy breath,
Keep silence here on earth, and think on Death.
From
Wilde’s ‘L’Envoi’
Among
the many young men in England who are seeking along with me to continue and to
perfect the English renaissance — jeunes guerriers du drapeau romantique,
as Gautier would have called us — there is none whose love of art is more
flawless and fervent…than the young poet whose verses I have brought with me to
America…
This
recognition of the primary importance of the sensuous element in art, this love
of art for art’s sake, is the point in which we of the younger school have made
a departure from the teaching of Mr Ruskin — a departure definite and different
and decisive… He would judge a picture by the amount of noble moral ideas it
expresses…
From
Rodd’s preface
These
little flowers of song reveal, as does no other phase of that great [Greek]
literature, a personal outlook on life, kindly, direct and simple, the
tenderness which characterised family relations, the reciprocal affection of
master and slave, sympathy with the domestic animals, a generous sense of the
obligations of friendship, a gentle piety and a close intimacy with the nature gods.
Some
versions by Rodd (from Mackail’s selection)
On the Spartans
These who with fame eternal their own dear land endowed
Took on them as a mantle the shade of death’s dark
cloud;
Yet dying thus they died not, on whom is glory shed
By virtue which exalts them above all other dead.
Love and Death
Friend Cleobulus, when I die,
Who conquered
by desire,
Abandoned in the ashes lie
Of youth’s
consuming fire,
Do me this service, drench in wine
The urn you
pass beneath,
And grave upon it this one line,
‘The gift of
Love to Death.’
The End of the Comedy
Fortune and Hope, a long adieu!
My ship is
safe in port.
With me is nothing left to do,
Make other
lives your sport.
Gideon Nisbet 07/03/18
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