INDISPUTABLE
From Aesop till today
there’s no lack of foul play.
So whether you say yay or nay,
amidst the foul play of the day –
be an Aesop of today.
HEROSTRATUS
Even with ill fame,
there is glory all the same
to wash away shame –
deprived of any other fame.
THE HERO’S POWER
No gladiators
ventured like Spartacus –
though from that feat by Spartacus
ventured quite a few gladiators.
ACCORDING TO MERIT
Juvenal the satirist
fiercely scourged Rome.
With time, though, only to exist
in the ruins of Rome.
CLEOPATRA
Rather more clever
than she was beautiful.
Also quite sensible –
libidinous just when profitable.
UNATTAINABLE
A horse become a senator?…
Not that he’s more than a horse,
but since he’s Caligula’s horse –
mad enough
to be emperor.
WITHOUT SCRUPLES
All was possible
in the reign of Nero.
Even to kill your mother,
if you’re Nero –
to the glory of Nero!
IN THE NAME OF THE THRONE
Claudius the Stammerer
still became emperor.
To the disgust of every orator,
who did not became emperor.
SHORTSIGHTEDNESS
Caesar crossed the Rubicon –
Rome to vanquish.
And with the halo of a deity –
in the Senate of Rome,
by his own to perish.
THE SUN KING
From extravagance on high
in his palace of Versailles —
the misery of the people
would always lurk close by.
THE TRIAL OF BAUDELAIRE
A boomerang for his enemies –
tarnished with morality,
they condemned his poetry.
REVERENCE
Rimbaud is Rimbaud.
Such a young
and accomplished poet.
Indeed, you must be a poet
and not so young
to be ripe
for Rimbaud’s genius.
JUSTIFICATION
Voltaire and Rousseau –
their genius – just thriving!
And their genius for conniving…
With each other, always biting –
because they were Voltaire and Rousseau.
PREEMINENCE
Both Montaigne and Voltaire
are feeble moralists
before today’s terrorists
with the morals of satanists.
THE TWO POLES
Nietzsche’s life
was rather tragic.
Yet without being Nietzsche
you can still be tragic –
if you’re prosaic.
COUNTERPOINT
Goethe was a minister.
For the renown
of every minister,
who became minister –
standing insignificant before Goethe.
PICASSO’S WOMEN
True amazement his genius induced,
and then, by his money –
they were truly well seduced.
THE PRICE OF GREATNESS
The great Salvador Dalí!
Incomparable!
And with the horns he wore – unattainable!
BOOMERANG
Promoted by his own.
Derided by everyone.
FOR REFLECTION
A grandee newly hatched will
vegetate in a castle.
LITERARY ORDERS
By the great ones prized.
By the small ones stigmatized.
AGGRANDIZEMENT
A venerable bureaucrat
with the halo of an aristocrat.
unimpeachability
Immaculately precise,
with insolent eyes.
WORLD STAR
A diva of porn –
in the cinema reborn.
GREAT RENOWN
Just a mere courtesan
But like the wife of a sultan.
.
Dilyan Benev
translator from Bulgarian Tracy Speed
Picture Nick Victor
.