{"id":3729,"date":"2014-01-17T15:39:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T20:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/?p=3729"},"modified":"2014-01-17T15:39:56","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T20:39:56","slug":"odysseus-to-telemachus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/2014\/01\/17\/odysseus-to-telemachus\/","title":{"rendered":"Odysseus to Telemachus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brodsky<\/a>

Brodsky (left). Source: bit.ly\/Kb5fcB<\/p><\/div>\n

Welcome back after the break!<\/p>\n

In relation to CC101’s study of The Odyssey<\/em> is a poem<\/a> by celebrated Russian poet laureate Joseph Brodsky, titled\u00a0Odysseus to Telemachus:<\/em><\/p>\n

My dear Telemachus,
\nThe Trojan War
\nis over now; I don’t recall who won it.
\nThe Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave
\nso many dead so far from their own homeland.
\nBut still, my homeward way has proved too long.
\nWhile we were wasting time there, old Poseidon,
\nit almost seems, stretched and extended space.<\/p>\n

I don’t know where I am or what this place
\ncan be. It would appear some filthy island,
\nwith bushes, buildings, and great grunting pigs.
\nA garden choked with weeds; some queen or other.
\nGrass and huge stones . . . Telemachus, my son!
\nTo a wanderer the faces of all islands
\nresemble one another. And the mind
\ntrips, numbering waves; eyes, sore from sea horizons,
\nrun; and the flesh of water stuffs the ears.
\nI can’t remember how the war came out;
\neven how old you are–I can’t remember.<\/p>\n

Grow up, then, my Telemachus, grow strong.
\nOnly the gods know if we’ll see each other
\nagain. You’ve long since ceased to be that babe
\nbefore whom I reined in the plowing bullocks.
\nHad it not been for Palamedes’ trick
\nwe two would still be living in one household.
\nBut maybe he was right; away from me
\nyou are quite safe from all Oedipal passions,
\nand your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is a valuable video of Brodsky himself reading the poem:
\n<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back after the break! In relation to CC101’s study of The Odyssey is a poem by celebrated Russian poet laureate Joseph Brodsky, titled\u00a0Odysseus to Telemachus: 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[898,3857,4854],"tags":[3689,5412,48548,44960,3830,48549,48546,48547],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3731,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions\/3731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}