Memorial Read online

  ALSO BY ALICE OSWALD

  POETRY

  The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile

  Dart

  Woods Etc.

  A Sleepwalk on the Severn

  Weeds and Wild Flowers

  EDITOR

  The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet

  Thomas Wyatt: Selected Poems

  MEMORIAL

  A VERSION OF HOMER’S ILIAD

  ALICE OSWALD

  W. W. NORTON & COMPANY

  NEW YORK LONDON

  Contents

  Begin Reading

  Acknowledgments

  Very many thanks to: Peter Oswald, Laura Beatty and the Keens, Sheila Hooker, Jules Cashford, Rupert Smith, Paul Keegan, Kevin Mount, Joe Richards, Iris Milward, Jo Larsen, Jerome Fletcher, Philip Franses, Minni Jain, Warwick Gould and the staff at Senate House Library, University of London – and Homer.

  This is a translation of the Iliad’s atmosphere, not its story. Matthew Arnold (and almost everyone ever since) has praised the Iliad for its ‘nobility’. But ancient critics praised its ‘enargeia’, which means something like ‘bright unbearable reality’. It’s the word used when gods come to earth not in disguise but as themselves. This version, trying to retrieve the poem’s enargeia, takes away its narrative, as you might lift the roof off a church in order to remember what you’re worshipping. What’s left is a bipolar poem made of similes and short biographies of soldiers, both of which derive (I think) from distinct poetic sources: the similes from pastoral lyric (you can tell this because their metre is sometimes compressed as if it originally formed part of a lyric poem); the biographies from the Greek tradition of lament poetry.

  There are accounts of Greek lament in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. When a corpse was layed out, a professional poet (someone like Homer) led the mourning and was antiphonally answered by women offering personal accounts of the deceased. I like to think that the stories of individual soldiers recorded in the Iliad might be recollections of these laments, woven into the narrative by poets who regularly performed both high epic and choral lyric poetry.

  The Iliad is a vocative poem. Perhaps even (in common with lament) it is invocative. It always addresses Patroclus as ‘you’, as if speaking directly to the dead. This translation presents the whole poem as a kind of oral cemetery – in the aftermath of the Trojan War, an attempt to remember people’s names and lives without the use of writing. I hope it doesn’t need too much context. I hope it will have its own coherence as a series of memories and similes laid side by side: an antiphonal account of man in his world.

  I should add a note about my attitude to the printed Iliad. My ‘biographies’ are paraphrases of the Greek, my similes are translations. However, my approach to translation is fairly irreverent. I work closely with the Greek, but instead of carrying the words over into English, I use them as openings through which to see what Homer was looking at. I write through the Greek, not from it – aiming for translucence rather than translation. I think this method, as well as my reckless dismissal of seven-eighths of the poem, is compatible with the spirit of oral poetry, which was never stable but always adapting itself to a new audience, as if its language, unlike written language, was still alive and kicking.

  PROTESILAUS

  ECHEPOLUS

  ELEPHENOR

  SIMOISIUS

  LEUKOS

  DEMOCOON

  DIORES

  PIROUS

  PHEGEUS

  IDAEUS

  ODIOS

  PHAESTUS

  SCAMANDRIUS

  PHERECLES

  PEDAEUS

  HYPSENOR

  ASTYNOOS

  HYPEIRON

  ABAS

  POLYIDOS

  XANTHUS

  THOON

  ECHEMMON

  CHROMIUS

  PANDARUS

  DEICOON

  ORSILOCHUS

  CRETHON

  PYLAEMENES

  MYDON

  MENESTHES

  ANCHIALOS

  AMPHIUS

  TLEPOLEMOS

  COERANUS

  CHROMIUS

  ALCASTOR

  ALCANDER

  HALIUS

  PYRTANIS

  NOEMON

  TEUTHRAS

  ORESTES

  TRECHUS

  OENOMAUS

  HELENUS

  ORESBIUS

  PERIPHAS

  ACAMAS

  AXYLUS

  CALESIUS

  PEDASUS

  AESEPUS

  ASTYALOS

  PIDUTES

  ARETAON

  ANTILOCHUS

  ELATUS

  PHYLAKOS

  MELANTHIUS

  ADRESTUS

  MENESTHIUS

  IPHINOUS

  ENIOPEUS

  AGELAOS

  ORSILOCHUS

  ORMENUS

  OPHELESTES

  DAETOR

  CHROMIUS

  LYCOPHONTES

  AMOPAON

  MELANIPPUS

  GORGYTHION

  ARCHEPTOLEMOS

  DOLON

  RHESUS

  ISOS

  ANTIPHOS

  PEISANDER

  HIPPOLOCHUS

  IPHIDAMAS

  COON

  ASAEUS

  AUTONOOS

  OPITES

  DOLOPS

  OPHELTIUS

  AGELAOS

  AESYMNUS

  ORUS

  HIPPONOUS

  THYMBRAIUS

  MOLION

  ADRESTUS

  AMPHIUS

  HIPPODAMOS

  HYPEIROCHOS

  AGASTRAPHUS

  THOON

  ENNOMUS

  CHERSIDAMAS

  SOCUS

  CHAROPS

  DORYCLES

  PANDOCUS

  LYSANDER

  PYRASUS

  PYLARTES

  APISAON

  DAMASOS

  PYLON

  ORMENOS

  HIPPOMACHOS

  ANTIPHATES

  MENON

  IAMENOS

  ORESTES

  EPICLES

  IMBRIOS

  AMPHIMACHOS

  OTHRYON

  ASIUS

  ALCATHOUS

  OINOMAOS

  ASKALAPHOS

  APHAREUS

  THOON

  ANTILOCHUS

  DEIPUROS

  PEISANDER

  HARPALION

  EUCHENOR

  SATNIUS

  PROTHOENOR

  ARCHELOCHUS

  PROMACHUS

  ILIONEUS

  STICHIUS

  ARCESILAUS

  MEDON

  IASUS

  MECISTEUS

  ECHIUS

  CLONIUS

  DEIOCHUS

  KALETOR

  LYKOPHRON

  KLEITOS

  SCHEDIOS

  LAODAMAS

  OTOS

  KROISMOS

  DOLOPS

  MELANIPPUS

  PERIPHETOS

  PURAICHMES

  AREILYCUS

  THOAS

  AMPHICLUS

  ATUMNIOS

  MARIS

  KLEOBULOS

  LYKON

  AKAMAS

  ERYMAS

  PRONOOS

  THESTOR

  ERYLAOS

  ERYMAS

  AMPHOTERUS

  EPALTES

  TLEPOLEMOS

  ECHIOS

  PURIS

  IPHES

  EUIPPOS

  POLYMELOS

  THRASYMELOS

  PEDASUS

  SARPEDON

  EPIGEUS

  BATHYCLES

  LAOGONUS

>   PATROCLUS

  EUPHORBAS

  HIPPOTHOUS

  SCHEDIUS

  PHORCYS

  LEOCRITUS

  APISAON

  ARETUS

  PODES

  KOIRANUS

  IPHITUS

  DEMOLEON

  HIPPODAMAS

  POLYDORUS

  DRYOPS

  DEMUCHUS

  LAOGONUS

  DARDANUS

  TROS

  MULIUS

  RHIGMOS

  LYCAON

  THERSILOCHUS

  MYDON

  ASTYPYLOS

  MNESIUS

  THRASIUS

  AINIOS

  OPHELESTES

  HECTOR

  The first to die was PROTESILAUS

  A focused man who hurried to darkness

  With forty black ships leaving the land behind

  Men sailed with him from those flower-lit cliffs

  Where the grass gives growth to everything

  Pyrasus Iton Pteleus Antron

  He died in mid-air jumping to be first ashore

  There was his house half-built

  His wife rushed out clawing her face

  Podarcus his altogether less impressive brother

  Took over command but that was long ago

  He’s been in the black earth now for thousands of years

  Like a wind-murmur

  Begins a rumour of waves

  One long note getting louder

  The water breathes a deep sigh

  Like a land-ripple

  When the west wind runs through a field

  Wishing and searching

  Nothing to be found

  The corn-stalks shake their green heads

  Like a wind-murmur

  Begins a rumour of waves

  One long note getting louder

  The water breathes a deep sigh

  Like a land-ripple

  When the west wind runs through a field

  Wishing and searching

  Nothing to be found

  The corn-stalks shake their green heads

  ECHEPOLUS a perfect fighter

  Always ahead of his men

  Known for his cold seed-like concentration

  Moving out and out among the spears

  Died at the hands of Antilochus

  You can see the hole in the helmet just under the ridge

  Where the point of the blade passed through

  And stuck in his forehead

  Letting the darkness leak down over his eyes

  ELEPHENOR from Euboea in command of forty ships

  Son of Chalcodon nothing is known of his mother

  Died dragging the corpse of Echepolus

  A little flash of flesh showing under the shield as he bent

  Agenor stabbed him in the ninth year of the war

  He wore his hair long at the back

  Like leaves

  Sometimes they light their green flames

  And are fed by the earth

  And sometimes it snuffs them out

  Like leaves

  Sometimes they light their green flames

  And are fed by the earth

  And sometimes it snuffs them out

  SIMOISIUS born on the banks of the Simois

  Son of Anthemion his mother a shepherdess

  Still following the sheep when she gave birth

  A lithe and promising young man unmarried

  Was met by Ajax in the ninth year of the war

  And died full tilt running onto his spear

  The point passed clean through the nipple

  And came out through the shoulderblade

  He collapsed instantly an unspeakable sorrow to his parents

  And LEUKOS friend of Odysseus

  Little is known of him except his death

  And someone’s face pierced like a piece of fruit

  That was Priam’s son unlucky man

  Who made his living in the horse country

  North of Troy he was stepping backwards

  When the darkness hit him with a dull clang

  His name was DEMOCOON

  Like a man steps back

  Seeing a snake almost under his foot

  In a heathery hollow

  The fear flutters his knees it

  Sucks him white he steps back

  Like a man steps back

  Seeing a snake almost under his foot

  In a heathery hollow

  The fear flutters his knees it

  Sucks him white he steps back

  DIORES son of Amarinceus

  Struck by a flying flint

  Died in a puddle of his own guts

  Slammed down into mud he lies

  With his arms stretched out to his friends

  And PIROUS the Thracian

  You can tell him by his knotted hair

  Lies alongside him

  He killed him and was killed

  There seem to be black flints

  Everywhere a man steps

  Like through the jointed grass

  The long-stemmed deer

  Almost vanishes

  But a hound has already found her flattened tracks

  And he’s running through the fields towards her

  Like through the jointed grass

  The long-stemmed deer

  Almost vanishes

  But a hound has already found her flattened tracks

  And he’s running through the fields towards her

  The priest of Hephaestus

  Hot-faced from staring at flames

  Prayed every morning the same prayer

  Please god respect my status

  Protect my sons PHEGEUS and IDAEUS

  Calm down their horses lift them

  Out of the fight as light as ash

  Hephaestus heard him but he couldn’t

  Hold those bold boys back

  Riding over the battlefield too fast

  They met a flying spear

  And like a lift door closing

  Inexplicable Hephaestus

  Whisked one of them away

  And the other died

  What happened to that man from Alybe far away in the east

  What happened to ODIOS what happened to PHAESTUS

  He came from Tarne where the soil is loose and crumbly

  Like snow falling like snow

  When the living winds shake the clouds into pieces

  Like flutters of silence hurrying down

  To put a stop to the earth at her leafwork

  Like snow falling like snow

  When the living winds shake the clouds into pieces

  Like flutters of silence hurrying down

  To put a stop to the earth at her leafwork

  SCAMANDRIUS the hunter

  Knew every deer in the woods

  He used to hear the voice of Artemis

  Calling out to him in the lunar

  No man’s land of the mountains

  She taught him to track her animals

  But impartial death has killed the killer

  Now Artemis with all her arrows can’t help him up

  His accurate firing arm is useless

  Menelaus stabbed him

  One spear-thrust through the shoulders

  And the point came out through the ribs

  His father was Strophius

  Like when a mother is rushing

  And a little girl clings to her clothes

  Wants help wants arms

  Won’t let her walk

  Like staring up at that tower of adulthood

  Wanting to be light again

  Wanting this whole problem of living to be lifted

  And carried on a hip

  Like when a mother is rushing

  And a little girl clings to her clothes

  Wants help wants arms

  Won’t let her walk

  Like staring up at that tower of adulthood

  Wanting to
be light again

  Wanting this whole problem of living to be lifted

  And carried on a hip

  Beloved of Athene PHERECLES son of Harmion

  Brilliant with his hands and born of a long line of craftsmen

  It was he who built the cursed fleet of Paris

  Little knowing it was his own death boat

  Died on his knees screaming

  Meriones speared him in the buttock

  And the point pierced him in the bladder

  And PEDAEUS the unwanted one

  The mistake of his father’s mistress

  Felt the hot shock in his neck of Meges’ spear

  Unswallowable sore throat of metal in his mouth

  Right through his teeth

  He died biting down on the spearhead

  Like suddenly it thunders

  And a stormwind rushes down

  And roars into the sea’s ears

  And the curves of many white-patched waves

  Run this way and that way

  Like suddenly it thunders

  And a stormwind rushes down

  And roars into the sea’s ears

  And the curves of many white-patched waves

  Run this way and that way

  Brave HYPSENOR the stump of whose hand

  Lies somewhere on the battlefield

  He was the son of Dolopion the river-priest

  Now he belongs to a great red emptiness

  Like when the rainy fog pulls down its hood on the mountains

  Misery for the herdsman better than night for the thief

  You can see no further than you can throw a stone

  Like when the rainy fog pulls down its hood on the mountains

  Misery for the herdsman better than night for the thief

  You can see no further than you can throw a stone

  Diomedes a madman a terrible numbness

  Turned inside-out and taking over everything

  Killed ASTYNOOS killed HYPEIRON

  Killed ABAS and POLYIDOS

  Their father could tell the future

  But he never prophesied that

  Killed XANTHUS and THOON

  Both tall men but their father

  Was a little wisp of worries

  Waiting at home what could he do

  Now all his savings will go to other people’s children

  Now he will have to live off nothing

  But his sons’ names meanwhile Diomedes

  With his eyes peeled down to their see-through stones

  Seeing through everything to its inner emptiness

  Killed ECHEMMON killed CHROMIUS

  Tin-opened them out of their armour

  And took for himself their high-stepping horses

  Like the high unescapable eye

  Of the eagle

  Under whose beam

  The shadow-swift hare can’t hide

  Pressed flat to the floor

  Of a leafy wood

  That loitering eye looks once

  And kills

  Like the high unescapable eye

  Of the eagle

  Under whose beam

  The shadow-swift hare can’t hide