The following is a translation from Megaklys. The poem
was discovered among other poetic papyri in a dig near
the Montazah Palace in Alexandria, Egypt, three years
ago. It is believed to be from the 1st century B.C.
Translated by Alexandra Papaditsas and Kent Johnson,
part of a manuscript currently in preparation.

**

The Seven Muses of the Boat-making District

                                                [translation for William Harrold]

If I ever see a ghost, I hope it is Brotachos of Alkmena1.
Because I wouldn’t be afraid. I would look at him
Floating there in his lily-shaped bubble, and then I would
Fall asleep and pick up exactly where I’d stopped in
My dream, just as if I’d never left it.

If I ever go to the Cyclades, I hope it is Samos, in another
century.
Because Ibykos2 lives there. And I would track him down
To offer him a bottle of liqueur from the future,
So to drink with him and gaze at his incredibly strange face,
Which is remarkably like Brotachos’. And I would look at this
face
And think, all at once, about the whole Constellation of
Dioskouroi.3

And if I ever go to heaven, I wish there to be more
Hummingbirds there than there are here.
And I hope there is a tiny golden kind.
Because when this kind beats its impossible wings so fast,
The sound of Brotachos’s voice comes out, making every poet-
angel
Want so much to be so good to every other one.

And if I could ever do something all over again in the City of
Athens,
It would be to go to Brotachus’ apartment in the Boat-making
District.
Because it is like a boat, and Korax and Markos4 and the one
whose
Name on the list is number thirty are also there. And we will
read
Poetry to the music of Thylakis , sure in the knowledge that
Storms and other dangerous weathers will not harm us.

And if I should ever give someone flowers again,
I hope to give them to Brotachos of Alkmena .
Because once when I brought him flowers, he put them
In a vase in the middle of his seven bronze muses,
And he closed his eyes and bent towards them, as if in prayer,
For a long time, and I saw two tears fall into the flowers.

Therefore, if I ever give him flowers again, I hope their
Aroma to be like a drug, unbounded by time.
Because we will sit together on his goatskin-covered
Couch, and look at a long scroll of Antimenidas’s etchings.
And Brotachos will move his hand over all the parallel worlds
curled
Up in there, making me want to fall asleep, and pick up exactly
Where I’d stopped in my dream, just as if I’d never left it.

And because I hope that when I wake, my head will be on
His shoulder, and his sleeping head will be resting
Lightly upon mine. And the scroll will still be open.


    --Megaklys. The provenance and dates of the author of this
    extraordinary poem are unknown. No other works by him are known
    to exist.

1. Nothing is known of this figure.

2. Great court poet of the tyrant Polykrates, from sixth century, B.C.

3. The constellation of good fortune for sailors, suggesting that
    Megaklys may have been a fisherman or mariner of some kind.

4. Neither of these two figures is known, nor are Thylakis or
    Antimenidas.


**