Ode XXIV by Anacreon (revisited)

1 year ago
32

I was looking to record a belated #ValentinesDay song for my beautiful wife, but then I realized that this 6th century B.C. poet was saying the equivalent of 'women should smile more'. Which is funny given that all his other poems are about drinking too much and chasing young women (and failing).

I think this translation (or more embellishment) is by Thomas Moore:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38230/38230-h/38230-h.htm#illo19

You can read the original Greek here (or maybe, like me, you can't):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/The_odes_of_Anacreon_.._%28IA_odesofanacreo00anac%29.pdf

I have had a go at re-writing the last part of the poem:

To man she gave a feeble mind,
Always enslaved to womankind.
Slave of her beauty, and her power,
Lost without her for an hour.
To woman she gave the finest treasure,
Mother of life and queen of pleasure,
She gave beauty and spark of mind,
Wise and caring, strong and kind.

#Lyre #Greek #Anacreon #Love #Feminism

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