Just
Now
What happens ‘always’
is what happens
‘now’.
Time has no
door to enter us
except this
moment.
Valmiki knew
this,
Vyasa and Homer
too,
why, even
Dante.
But we forget
that.
So we think
infinity is
somewhere
outside us
and eternity is
what we confront
only once we
die.
We can be
indifferent to history,
but do not
expect history to spare us.
So let us speak
about the rain
pouring down
this moment in a torrent
this flower
blossoming now
this eye
opening in front of us,
and this blood
being shed
before our
eyes, just now.
.jpg)
L'embellie [Clear spell] - René Magritte
Valmiki ("Adi Kavi," the 1st poet) wrote the "Ramayana," the 1st Sanskrit epic poem. Originally his name was Adni Sharma but the supernatural sage Narada convinced him to become an ascetic; he acquired his literary name because of the anthills that formed around him while he performed his devotions. In the 16th century he was reincarnated as Goswami Tulsidas, the holy man who wrote the "Ramcharitmanas," the vernacular Awadhi dialect of Hindi version of the "Ramayana."
ReplyDeleteVyasa (Sanskrit for "Compiler") wrote the "Mahabharata," the other great Sanskrit epic, the world's longest poem (4 times longer than Valmiki's work, 10 times larger than the works of Homeros.
Homeros ("Homer") wrote the 2 central works of ancient Greek literature, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." Centuries later Platon called him the one who "has taught Greece." He was the son of the Meles river (possibly the one that flowed near Izmir, Turkey, though many other streams bore that name) and the nymph Kritheis (probably related to the Greek word for barley). Their son Melesigenes later obtained the "homer" epithet ("blind man" in the Cumaean dialect of modern Nemrut Limani in Turkey). In other accounts his mother was enslaved by pirates and sold to king Maeon of the Lydians, who married her; when the Aeolian Greeks drove the Lydians from the area Melesigenes followed his adoptive people out of the area ("homerein" meant to follow). According to the 4th-century BCE historian Ephorus of Cumae, the father of Hesiodos (the other great early Greek writer) was the uncle of Kritheis, who was raped by another uncle; when her son Melesigenes became blind he acquired a new name because he needed homereuontes ("guides" in the Ionian dialect) after he became blind. In some accounts Kritheis was descended from Orpheus, the muse Calliope, Apollo, and Poseidon; in others, that she was related to major heroes in the "Iliad," as the daughter of Nestor's daughter and Odysseus' son Telemachus.
None of these legendary poets can be placed in time, but Dante (Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri), who established a variant of Tuscan as literary Italian (and pioneered the use of terza rima, an interlocking 3-line rhyme scheme) can be located with a great deal of accuracy, though Giovanni Boccaccio (who attached the "Divine" adjective to his major work, the "Comedia") did not compose his 1st formal biography until after 1348. Dante was born around 1265 and died in 1321. His family belonged to the Guelph faction in Firenze (Florence), who supported the papacy against the Ghibelline faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor. At 18 he joined other intellectuals in forming the literary movement he called "dolce stil novo" (the sweet new style), the beginning of Italian literature. In 1289 he fought in the Guelph cavalry at the battle of Campoldino, which led to a reformation of the Florentine constitution and his rise to a political career, but the victory led to a split between his own Guelfi Bianchi (Whites), who sought autonomy from papal rule, and the Guelfi Neri (Blacks) led by his in-laws, who continued to support the pope. The Whites expelled the Blacks and sent Dante to Roma as a negotiator in 1301, but while he was there Bonifatius VIII sent the French king's brother against Firenze, and the Blacks razed the city. The new government sentenced Dante to a 2-year exile and a fine, and when he refused to pay a sentence of perpetual exile was imposed (not rescinded until 2008) and later he was sentenced to death. Freed from his official duties, he began writing seriously. He seems to have begun working on "Comedia" before 1314; the 1st part was published by 1317, the 2nd part before his death in Ravenna, and the 3rd part posthumously.