So turn whereto it dies,
Pulse of a draining sun:
The face of daylight’s guise
The yield that night has won.
See on the far-west front,
Goes trotting godly fame:
The bull called occident.
His white hide bears a name –
By what light is yet sparred
(Again, he is Jove paired!)
It reads: she, wide of brow;
Or maybe: she, of dusk.*
Set on, she will avow
The birth of this cultus.
It spells out Europa,
(Decorous, ridding brusque)
God’s virgin mineral
(With frankincense for musk)
Fair consort of the bull.
Kingly initiate,
Oh regal neophyte –
The gods part you from blame,
Buried to be raised up.
Birthed thus into you name:
Son of Zeus and Europe.**

 

*Gilman, D. Thurston, H. and Colby F. (eds.), 1905. Europa. In: New International Encyclopedia. New York: Dodd, Mead.

**Euripides, Cretans, cited in: Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, IV:xix.

For the myth of Europa, or Europe, click here.

 

Carlos Perona Calvete, twenty-six, lives in Brussels and has a background in International Relations and Organizational Behavior.

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6 Responses

  1. Neal Dachstadter

    This poem taught me a great deal. “Inspiring” may be overworked but that will just have to be the case.

    Reply
    • 绿山从 From Green Mountain (Cong Lu Shan)

      I am more interested to know what the poem means specifically. The only word I am left with is inspiring. So I correct myself. It is for worse that I remain so inerudite. As to matters of the classical life, it is better to be erudite. Mundane earthlife is best left to necessity. And, in other themes, the classical Chinese earthly animal is the horse, I believe. Ma. Ma. Ma. Horse. Wood. Mother.

      Reply
    • C. Perona

      Thank you! I’ll try publishing a few more in this vein (mytho-thematic).

      Reply
  3. Emilia

    An inspiring poem by a young son of Europe…thank you Carlos Perona! This poem coudn’t have been published at a better moment…

    Reply

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