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[x_los]

An sent me this poem forever ago, and I /quite/ like it, but how do you read the last stanza? Anyone? I'm a bit ambivalent here.



Odysseus to Telemachus [Joseph Brodsky]

My dear Telemachus,
  The Trojan War
is over now; I don't recall who won it.
The Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave
so many dead so far from their own homeland.
But still, my homeward way has proved too long.
While we were wasting time there, old Poseidon,
it almost seems, stretched and extended space.

I don't know where I am or what this place
can be. It would appear some filthy island,
with bushes, buildings, and great grunting pigs.
A garden choked with weeds; some queen or other.
Grass and huge stones . . . Telemachus, my son!
To a wanderer the faces of all islands
resemble one another. And the mind
trips, numbering waves; eyes, sore from sea horizons,
run; and the flesh of water stuffs the ears.
I can't remember how the war came out;
even how old you are – I can't remember.

Grow up, then, my Telemachus, grow strong.
Only the gods know if we'll see each other
again. You've long since ceased to be that babe
before whom I reigned in the plowing bullocks.
Had it not been for Palamedes' trick
we two would still be living in one household.
But maybe he was right; away from me
you are quite safe from all Oedipal passions,
and your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless.

Comments

[blackletter]

I will take a wild stab at this. I recognize the myth being referenced here:

You've long since ceased to be that babe
before whom I reigned in the plowing bullocks.
Had it not been for Palamedes' trick
we two would still be living in one household

Odysseus didn't want to go to Troy, so when the Greeks came to collect him he pretended to be crazy. He did this by yoking together an ox and an ass and plowed his fields, sowing salt into the earth as he went and generally acting cukoo. Palamedes (the second smartest Greek) suspected the ruse and so placed baby Telemachus in front of the plow. Odysseus dropped the crazy act and halted the plow to save his son and thus his trick was exposed and he was compelled to sail to Troy and abandon his family.

But maybe he was right; away from me
you are quite safe from all Oedipal passions,
and your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless.

With Odysseus away, Telemachus can't kill his father (as Oedipus did) or yearn to kill him. While away at war, Odysseus is only a distant ideal, not a real person with flaws whom Telemachus might hate. Odysseus' absence means that the two men can't fight, can't clash, can't nurse jealousies. They can have a perfect (if unreal) relationship in that it's not complicated by the messiness of life.

(Ironically, Odysseus *is* killed by one of his sons, but it's not Telemachus but Telegonus--his and Circe's son.)

[x-los.livejournal.com]

That /is/ really interesting--I was thrown by Telemachus having such unfettered access to his mother, in Odysseus's absence, and didn't know whether the poem was saying something about /their/ interaction I was unaware of, or what? This... makes infinitely more sense now, thanks. Classics knowledge ftw.