Chloris

RainFreed-up translation of Odyssey Book 11, lines 281-297

The seer worked free of death.

Working free of death brings
the seer back, he shares our table.

Free, the seer shares
the texture of the daily life of bondsmen,
cattle, herdsmen, we hear the rattle of their chains,
slaves marked as slaves for life, the how-to of unmarking.

Tells all there is to tell.

Took an axe to cattle, brought cattle back.

Our table. Pylos, our home.

My husband, a god’s son.
My father, a king. I gave them three sons
while going about the business of ruling over Pylos

three high achievers
and a daughter, Pero. Pero, highly sought after.

The cattle came to me in a dream.

Came to my husband in a dream as well.

Two heads together in a bed,
touching. Brow to brow.
Inside the two the valued calves low.

Everything we know, the seer knew.

καὶ Χλῶριν εἶδον περικαλλέα, τήν ποτε Νηλεὺς
γῆμεν ἑὸν διὰ κάλλος, ἐπεὶ πόρε μυρία ἕδνα,
ὁπλοτάτην κούρην Ἀμφίονος Ἰασίδαο,
ὅς ποτ ̓ ἐν Ὀρχομενῷ Μινυείῳ ἶφι ἄνασσεν:
ἡ δὲ Πύλου βασίλευε, τέκεν δέ οἱ ἀγλαὰ τέκνα,
Νέστορά τε Χρόνιον τε Περικλύμενόν τ ̓ ἀγέρωχον.
τοῖσι δ ̓ ἐπ ̓ ἰφθίμην Πηρὼ τέκε, θαῦμα βροτοῖσι,
τὴν πάντες μνώοντο περικτίται: οὐδ ̓ ἄρα Νηλεὺς
τῷ ἐδίδου ὃς μὴ ἕλικας βόας εὐρυμετώπους
ἐκ Φυλάκης ἐλάσειε βίης Ἰφικληείης
ἀργαλέας: τὰς δ ̓ οἶος ὑπέσχετο μάντις ἀμύμων
ἐξελάαν: χαλεπὴ δὲ θεοῦ κατὰ μοῖρα πέδησε,
δεσμοί τ ̓ ἀργαλέοι καὶ βουκόλοι ἀγροιῶται.
ἀλλ ̓ ὅτε δὴ μῆνές τε καὶ ἡμέραι ἐξετελεῦντο
ἂψ περιτελλομένου ἔτεος καὶ ἐπήλυθον ὧραι,
καὶ τότε δή μιν ἔλυσε βίη Ἰφικληείη,
θέσφατα πάντ ̓ εἰπόντα: Διὸς δ ̓ ἐτελείετο βουλή.

—

Fortunato Salazar’s translation and other writing is at and forthcoming at Lana Turner, Harvard Review, Guernica, The Atlantic, Conjunctions, Ploughshares Longform, and widely elsewhere. He lives in Berlin (Germany) and West Hollywood (California).