Weights and Measures: Soldiers Share Emotions in Modern Portrayal of Sophocles' Ajax

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Sunday, November 8, 2015

Rehearsals for the November 12 performance of my translation of Sophocles' Ajax strike emotional chords among modern veterans according to newspaper. Here is the link:

http://poststar.com/lifestyles/veterans-group-uses-classic-tragedy-to-tell-modern-soldiers-stories/article_bedbd2f5-3db9-50d7-80a0-c7d9d02c09bb.html#.Vj-ya-YWRR0.gmail

Another age: our greed-governed ancestors

Venture forth, significant supercargoes

Compelling the twins: speed and economy.

They bounded oceans for Madagascar

Or Malay, craved the Orient’s garb.

We watch for their return with telescope

Of brass: pennants streaming, hull stowed with teas

And silks. We dream them into our harbors.

We await tribute from captains now arrived,

Long doldrumed—their ships in need of repair:

Sails split and rotting, spars sprung.

Ascending the granite steps, these dangerous men,

These men unable to meet our tariffs

Curse the collectors of the world, the weights

And measures; their minds unbalanced, salt-eaten.

They sulk impatiently, clawing their daggers:

We’ve seen their kind before.

Once in every while a revolution;

They murder us at our desks: stabbed with pen,

Bludgeoned with ink bottle. We disappear

For a time: there are advantages,

Our ghostly machinery still keeping account.

In the end they always pay.