Ovid metamorphoses XV ( A D Melville trans)
lines 229-62 … Pythagoras
oh – so bees come from a rotting bull
I knew that they must come from somewhere
The horse to hornets
that makes sense
Nothing can last , I do believe , for long
In the same image . The ages of the world
From Golden passed to Iron. How many times
The fortunes of a place have been reversed !
I’ve seen myself how solid stable ground
Became the open sea . I’ve seen the ocean
Turn to dry land; and sea shells often lie
Far from the shore; and on a mountain top
Is found a rusty anchor centuries old .
Lettuces will grow from tiny seeds
And frogs will grow from slime and mud
They grow to hop a yard or more
And land in water on elastic feet
Nothing retains its form; new shapes from old
Nature , the great inventor , ceaselessly,
Contrives . In all creation , be assured,
There is no death --- no death, but only change;
And innovation ; what we men call birth
Is but a different new beginning; death
Is but to cease to be the same .
Bears are not born – they are shaped by licks
Worms do not die – they wrap themselves in wool
And rest a while and then burst open ,flapping wings
Not far from ancient Troezen is a mound,
High, steep and treeless, once a level plain ,
Quite flat , but now a hill . The winds’ wild strength
( A ghastly story ), pent within blind caves,
Seeking some vent , striving in vain to enjoy
The freedom of the sky , finding nowhere
In their whole prison a fissure for their blasts,
Made the ground stretch and swell, as one inflates
A bladder or a goatskin ; in that place
The swollen bulge still stands , a tumulus,
Time-hardened , rising high above the plain.
Stones are not stones
or not All . Some were wood
and some of them were bones
Anita Greg 04/06/2018
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