I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
......
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light,
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night.
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!
No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull's call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.
......
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passion and worship fed
......
If I were a cinnamon peeler
I would ride your bed
And leave the yellow bark dust
On your pillow.
Your breasts and shoulders would reek
You could never walk through markets
without the profession of my fingers
floating over you. The blind would
stumble certain of whom they approached
......
Brother, you are a lot older than me
You have a wife and a son to look after
You have Ms. That makes it harder to walk
But you walk anyway with crutches
You have also to work to pay the bills
We communicate by email
We were both born a Christian
Brother, I pray for you every day
have I ever told enough that I love you?
Brother, I even miss you
......
CATULLUS TRANSLATIONS
Catullus CI aka Carmina 101: “His Brother’s Burial”
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
1.
Through many lands and over many seas
I have journeyed, brother, to these wretched rites,
to this final acclamation of the dead ...
and to speak — however ineffectually — to your voiceless ashes
......
My cute little brother,
Full of pristine purity,
Glows amidst people other,
Full of divine sanctity.
Stuffed with pure love,
Filled with intimate innocence,
Like an angel from above,
He spreads his milky essence.
......
A man is like a tree, tall and strong,
With branches reaching up to the sky.
His roots run deep, he's been here so long,
And he stands firm when the winds pass by.
His trunk is solid, his bark so rough,
But he's gentle too, like a soft breeze.
He may seem tough, but he's filled with love,
And his heart beats with the greatest ease.
......
Cowardly brother, I think I've found the answer
But while you've been holding the question,
You think you're an actor
Does your heart still yearn?
To know what went wrong
Fucked up kids
My heart's just beating along
I've looked through the dirty glass,
......