I learn from past centuries.
And why not?
They knew a lot.
I am not bigoted,
not against the dead,
not against quickless bodies,
nor quick-witted minds soaked with unfamiliar alphabets.
The long gone teachers still teach;
Ovid – things are and are not what they seem,
Homer – the perils of a long journey home,
Democritus – look deep, smallest, dense
Heraclitus – the river dances; cha cha, tango, twist.
Siddhartha – nothing lasts, don’t pretend it does.
I place my trust,
I must,
in translation,