Continuity
I knew my grandparents by how they cultivated their
land
In their form of fingers interrelating
While the line of life
Had to start in the east
They woke up with the crown of sun every morning.
As a borderline between what belonged to them
And the indifference for what did not
Were the graceful oak trees
Equal with the age’s roughness
That just to bother
Threw its shade in the neighbour’s garden
Who my grandpa always mentioned
With a little envy
Because his trees gave more fruits.
The adour of sail while it was cultivated
I remember it even today… reminds me of childhood
Generations are raised by memories!
Ah, I haven’t forgotten the offenses of my
grandparents
Their silent curses for those who stole a little grape
across
The street (never in their pride touched).
Now that I tread that earth with a bunch of dreams in
my hands
I feel that in it there’s again essence
That time won’t fade away!
Everything has died because of the winter cold
But the amaryllis of the earth inherited a spring that
will ever cherish…
Amaryllis (from "amarella" due to the bitterness of the flower's bulb and from "amarysso," to sparkle) is a genus of flowering bulbs. Amaryllis belladonna, native to South Africa, is variously called the belladonna lily, Jersey lily, naked lady, amarillo, March lily and Easter lily. The name is often applied to the South American genus Hippeastrum (Knight Star), which is widely sold in the winter due to its ability to bloom indoors. Originally Amaryllis was a shy maiden in Greeky myth who fell in love with a shepherd Alteo, who swore that he would only fall in love with someone who introduced him to a flower he had never seen before. On the advice of the oracle of Delphi, Amaryllis dressed in maiden's white and repeatedly stood in front of his home, piercing her heart with a golden arrow. On the 30th day a crimson flower with an open calyx grew from where her blood had fallen, and Alteo fell n love with her. Later Publius Vergilius Maro ("Virgil") named a shepherdess in his "Eclogues" (drafts, selections, reckonings) after her. In addition to being the first of his major works, the 10 poems comprised the first book of Latin poetry in the same meter assembled by the poet himself (Gaius Valerius Catullus had earlier compiled his own poems, but they were written in different meters.) Amaryllis was named in the first verse of the first poem, when (in the translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Meliboeus addressed
ReplyDeleteTityrus thou in the shade of a spreading beech tree reclining
Meditatest, with slender pipe, the Muse of the woodlands.
We our country’s bounds and pleasant pastures relinquish,
We our country fly; thou, Tityrus, stretched in the shadow,
Teachest the woods to resound with the name of the fair Amaryllis.
Virgil carefully used her name to balance the "shadow" of the preceding line, and she was poetically made identical with the woods, as when she caused pines, fountains, and trees to bewail her lost love. Amaryllis made numerous appearances throughout the eclogues: in the first one she was the beloved of Tityrus; in the second the lover of Corydon (who loved the handsome Alexis in vain); in the third the lover of Damoetas; and in the 8th she helped Alphoesiboeus win Dapnis, the ideal male beauty, with love spells.The poem's first three named characters engage in multiple relationships of reciprocity and inversion throughout the book; again, their very names introduce the theme, since Meliboeus is a goat-herd whose name suggested the Greek term for “care for cows,” while Tityrus, a cowherd, had a name that echoed the Greek word for ram. This confusion was also displayed in the plant's taxonomy. In 1753 Carl Linnaeus created the name "Amaryllis belladonna." But it was unclear whether he used the term to describe the South African or South American plants, which were subsequently separated into two different genera. The issue was not settled until the 14th International Botanical Congress was held in 1987. Nonetheless, "amaryllis" continues to be commonly used for both genera; and an alternative name, "naked lady" (from the plant's pattern of flowering when the foliage has died down) is also used for other bulbs with a similar growth and flowering pattern.