Julia on Pandataria
Encyclopedia
Julia on Pandataria is a poem by William Auld
and translated from Esperanto
by Roy MacDonald about Julia the Elder
, who was daughter of Caesar Augustus. When she was accused of having numerous affairs with several of the nobles, her father banished her to the island Pandataria.
On this island life sets slowly.
during long afternoons a dreary wind
beside the rustling sea, agitating
my robe with indifference,
rubs my memories, and bears witness:
Death, death, death… Death is not here.
A three-times wife, ravishing night-lover,
for whom the present was everything,
has come to this: the gull’s fluting,
a futile past and a tearful future;
an empty woman as pallid as a ghost
who lacks the blood of offerings.
And I realise in this crude place,
where the flesh rots under the dews,
strange and cold, that the whole of life
- kisses heady with perfume, wine and roses -
was always empty, and lonely…
The queen of the world was ever a corpse alone.
Most solitary when coupling, but I sought
my happiness where I but could;
under the promptings of curious desire
I sought the more, the more I found
only unhappiness in the joys of love.
I was caught time and again in the same ambushes.
That was another me – only a fable
heard once in a stranger’s dream.
What does Rome mean? Why, naked sand,
rocks, a rude-handed wind, a crying gull,
while my body withers, apathetic,
and Rome is an imagined fever.
The present no long matters. Now time
is eternal, without beginning or end,
and my young flesh because of the betrayal
and excessive hammering of fate
is ardent no longer, no longer incites to pleasure,
and death avoids me, the living-dead…
William Auld
William Auld was a Scottish poet, author, translator and magazine editor who wrote chiefly in Esperanto. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, 2004, and 2006 making him the first and only person to be nominated for works in Esperanto...
and translated from Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
by Roy MacDonald about Julia the Elder
Julia the Elder
Julia the Elder , known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Augustus subsequently adopted several male members of his close family as sons...
, who was daughter of Caesar Augustus. When she was accused of having numerous affairs with several of the nobles, her father banished her to the island Pandataria.
English translation
On this island life sets slowly.
during long afternoons a dreary wind
beside the rustling sea, agitating
my robe with indifference,
rubs my memories, and bears witness:
Death, death, death… Death is not here.
A three-times wife, ravishing night-lover,
for whom the present was everything,
has come to this: the gull’s fluting,
a futile past and a tearful future;
an empty woman as pallid as a ghost
who lacks the blood of offerings.
And I realise in this crude place,
where the flesh rots under the dews,
strange and cold, that the whole of life
- kisses heady with perfume, wine and roses -
was always empty, and lonely…
The queen of the world was ever a corpse alone.
Most solitary when coupling, but I sought
my happiness where I but could;
under the promptings of curious desire
I sought the more, the more I found
only unhappiness in the joys of love.
I was caught time and again in the same ambushes.
That was another me – only a fable
heard once in a stranger’s dream.
What does Rome mean? Why, naked sand,
rocks, a rude-handed wind, a crying gull,
while my body withers, apathetic,
and Rome is an imagined fever.
The present no long matters. Now time
is eternal, without beginning or end,
and my young flesh because of the betrayal
and excessive hammering of fate
is ardent no longer, no longer incites to pleasure,
and death avoids me, the living-dead…
External links
- Esperantling Verkista Asocio (Original poem and translation)