Tombs of the Hetaerae

Summary

They're lying there in their long hair with brown

faces long gone into themselves, eyes closed

as if before too many distances.

Mouths, flowers, skeletons. Inside the mouths,

the even teeth like rows of pocket chessmen

made of ivory are arrayed in ranks.

And flowers, yellowed pearls, thin knucklebones,

the palms of hands, and peplums, faded gauze

above the heart caved in and shriveled. But …

beneath them there — those rings and talismans

and blue-eyed stones that served once as dear keepsakes —

that silent crypt is standing still: their sex,

filled to its vaulted roof with flower petals.

And yellowed pearls again, unstrung, rolled off.

Vessels of fired pottery whose lips

their images had once adorned, green shards

of ointment jars that smell like flowers still,

statues of little gods: their household shrines —

hetaerae heavens with delighted gods.

And girdled zones now come undone, flat scarabs,

small figures with enormous phalluses,

a mouth that laughs, and dancing girls and runners,

golden brooches bent like little bows

on hunting beast- and bird-shaped amulets,

long needles, decorated household things,

a rounded shard of red-ground pottery,

on which, like black inscriptions on a gate:

the straight-out legs of horses — team-of-four.

More flowers still, and pearls long rolled away,

the shining haunches of a little lyre,

and out from under crypt veils’ foggy mist,

as if it crept from some shoe-chrysalis:

the pale white anklebone's light butterfly.

And so they lie, all filled with things, with precious

things and jewels and toys and household goods,

with broken baubles (oh-so-much fell to them) —

and then they darken like a riverbed.

For riverbeds they were.

Above them, in a rush of rapid ripples

(die weiter wollten zu dem nächsten Leben)

die Leiber vieler Jünglinge sich stürzten

und in denen der Männer Ströme rauschten.

Und manchmal brachen Knaben aus den Bergen

der Kindheit, kamen zagen Falles nieder

und spielten mit den Dingen auf dem Grunde,

bis das Gefälle ihr Gefühl ergriff:

Dann füllten sie mit flachem klaren Wasser

die ganze Breite dieses breiten Weges

und trieben Wirbel an den tiefen Stellen;

und spiegelten zum ersten Mal die Ufer