We now take a rather large leap forward from Cavafy’s No. 77 to his No. 140 – the latter poem being the most recently translated by me, completed today in fact. I am so excited by what I have done to it that I am putting it out ahead of sequence. The model in the video is Rick Wayne, one of the best body-builders of his generation who exudes charm, health and strength in every shot. The photographs are not copyrighted but we owe him a debt of gratitude for sharing his considerable talents with us. And this poem is my personal tribute. There is of course not the slightest connection between his subsequent career and that of my imaginary sexual blacksmith. 140. 1909-11 His father a poor seaman from one of the remoter Aegean islands, he worked for a blacksmith; was shabbily dressed, cast off remnants of other people’s clothes, strong broad hands filthy from constant labour. Through interstices of torn shirt and trousers came magical glimpses of rounded muscled thews and warm brown moulded cavities of flesh. After work the fancy often took him to dress himself in something especially flattering to adorn his wellset frame – a fine expensive tie for Sunday wear (he liked to parade on Sunday), a new shirt of unusual cut and colour; to pay for which he’d sell to a passing stranger for a small sum his rich athletic body. In the long story of Alexandrian history crammed as it is with coruscating beauty never before was found such a fabulous creature. Now he’s gone, forgotten …
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Christiane and Sandra write a book about the “world of magic”. At an esoteric summer workshop, they meet three other women and decide to work together on the project, with each woman delving into a special area: shamanism, witchcraft, ritual magic, sexual magic, geomancy. They all try to influence their life through magical rituals. “I want to know what keeps the world together”, Christiane, the shaman, says. Taking psychoactive plants she tries to find the answer in other dimensions or in conversations with her pig Hildeswin, her best friend. Sandra, the witch, is searching for the man of her life, but the tarot cards always say “no” to the men she meets. A crazy comedy about five young women searching for the meaning of their life. A comedy which spares no aspect of the “magical sciences”. But the world of magic has its own set of laws… A Film by Roland Reber
Video Rating: 2 / 5
good pics – excellent poem but the mastercheese theater voice …
I am lost for words such amazing talent Thank you.
Thanks Kestal. I thoroughly agree with you about Rick. And altho the blacksmith of the poem was diminished by time, Rick seems to have found the secret of eternal youth 🙂
The strength and beauty of these verses and Charles’s reading are vividly mirrored in the images of Rick Wayne. He exudes a sultry charm refreshingly free of narcissism. A bodybuilder is his own blacksmith. With great toil, he hammers and shapes his body into sculpted, muscled perfection. The athlete is subject to the toll time takes on us all. Even the most fit are eventually diminished to scrap metal by the ravages of life.Still,I
think of his legacy as forever young,vibrant, and beckoning.
😉 thank you for the comment
It sounds much better in greek…nevertheless the vid is pretty good.
Many thanks my dear friend.
Chas, Timeless and so true. There is beauty in the reality, the honesty, of these verses.
YF.
great movie!
what a bunch of bullshit
so funny! so wonderful. thanks for being so real. love it ! awesone !
love Micha in Vermont USA
93! finally someone who knows something about magick :]
Don’t you have respect for anything ancient? I bet you would desecrate a mummy’s tomb, wouldn’t you? I bet you would piss on a statue of the Mary…have some respect for other people’s culture. especially one that could come and bite you in the ass later.