The Other Penelope

The Other Penelope Penelope emerges fromtheolive trees her hairmore or less tidy her dress from theneighborhood market navy blue with white flowers. She tellsus it wasn't obsession with the idea of "Odysseus" thatpressed her to let the suitors wait foryears in the forecourts ofher body's secrethabits. There in the island's palace with the fakehorizons of a saccharine love and only thebird in the window comprehending the infinite she had painted with nature's colors theportrait of love. Seated, one leg crossed over the other, holding a cup of coffee up early, a littlegrumpy, smiling a little he emerges warm from the down of sleep. His shadow on the wall: traceof a piece of furniturejust taken away blood of an ancientmurder a lone performance of Karaghiozi on the screen,pain always behind him. Love and pain indivisible like thepail and the child on the sandy beach theah! and a crystalglass thatslipped fromone's hand thegreen fly and the slaughtered animal the soil and the shovel thenaked body and the single sheet in July. And Penelope who now hears the evocative music of fear the cymbals of resignation the sweet song of a quiet day without sudden changes ofweather and tone the complex chords of an infinite gratitude for what did not happen, was not said, cannot be uttered now signals no, no, no more loving no more words and whispers caresses and bites small cries in thedarkness scent offlesh thatburns in the light. Pain was the most exquisite suitor and she slammed thedoor on him. Translationfrom the Greek By Edmund& Mary Keeley Edmund Keeley isthe author of seven novels, ten volumes of nonfiction, and fifteen volumes of poetry in translation. He taught English, creative writing, and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University for fortyyears, and retired as Straut Professor of English. His latest books are a literaryhistory, Inventing Paradise: The Greek Journey, 1937-47 (1999); a novel, Some Wine for Remembrance (2001); and a memoir, Borderlines (2005). His awards include the Rome Prize and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the PEN / Ralph Manheim Meda! forTranslation. Mary Keeley is a freelance translator who has often collaborated with her husband, Edmund Keeley, in rendering individual poems. Her book-length translations include Vassilis Vassilikos's The Plant, theWell, the Angel and theMonarch as well as Katie Katsoyannis's Correspondence with Dimitri Mitropoulos. Editorial note: From The Scattered Papers of Penelope: New and Selected Poems, by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, edited and with an introduction by Karen Van Dyck, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in March 2009. January-February 2009 i15

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