“Writer Allan Sealy journeys across North America, Canada and Mexico training an Eastern gaze at the West.”
Yukon to Yucatan since we are on the topic of going to exotic places, I figured a reverse point of view might make for some interesting reading.
Sweet Princess Priya:
I dont *write* good poetry, I only *copy* it, alas… *sigh*… (though in encourage myself by repeating the dictum from a once-famous man that while good artists borrow, great artists STEAL — so maybe next time i ought not to quote my source…) 😉
When we do meet in Hyderabad you will be able to appreciate first hand how little i have to say for myself when I am unable to copy from one great author or another!
Kind Dr Chopi, but we ARE going to do just that… though in my case we may be drinking WHISKEY from coconuts!
(I got to say, though, it would taste a lot better with you around).
ok ok ok enough of this back to work…
I didn’t mean do the website, I meant pack up and leave…..
sit on a beach and drink rum out of coconuts…..
Hello Priya!
This is what I really ought to say to you, in the words of Odysseus, who, in book VI, shiprecked on Scheria, emerges naked and exhausted from the woods to beg aid of young Princess Nausikaa:
“O queen,” he said, “I implore your aid- but tell me, are you a goddess or are you a mortal woman? If you are a goddess and dwell in heaven, I can only conjecture that you are Jove’s daughter Diana, for your face and figure resemble none but hers; if on the other hand you are a mortal and live on earth, thrice happy are your father and mother- thrice happy, too, are your brothers and sisters; how proud and delighted they must feel when they see so fair a scion as yourself going out to a dance; most happy, however, of all will he be whose wedding gifts have been the richest, and who takes you to his own home. I never yet saw any one so beautiful, neither man nor woman, and am lost in admiration as I behold you. I can only compare you to a young palm tree which I saw when I was at Delos growing near the altar of Apollo- for I was there, too, with much people after me, when I was on that journey which has been the source of all my troubles. Never yet did such a young plant shoot out of the ground as that was, and I admired and wondered at it exactly as I now admire and wonder at yourself. I dare not clasp your knees, but I am in great distress; yesterday made the twentieth day that I had been tossing about upon the sea. The winds and waves have taken me all the way from the Ogygian island, and now fate has flung me upon this coast that I may endure still further suffering; for I do not think that I have yet come to the end of it, but rather that heaven has still much evil in store for me.
“And now, O queen, have pity upon me, for you are the first person I have met, and I know no one else in this country. Show me the way to your town, and let me have anything that you may have brought hither to wrap your clothes in. May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire- husband, house, and a happy, peaceful home; for there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house. It discomfits their enemies, makes the hearts of their friends glad, and they themselves know more about it than any one.”
So kindly consider my suit, Madam…
(The rest of you check out Complete Set of Links to The Odyssey includes links to original greek text, and every extant latin and English language translation!).
well, heeeeelllllooooooooooooo Princess Priya!!!!!!!
Many many many many thanks! we’ll make a point of coming around to looking you up in Hyderabad — just as soon as we get put together our elephant train, camels, harem slaves, etc. (we may have to stop here and there along the way for a tiger shoot, you know those pesky tigers)!!! Sooner or later we will make it there! Keep the punkah wallah on stand-by!