This poem is taken from PN Review 262, Volume 48 Number 2, November - December 2021.
Leda Deflowered
a contrapuntal translation by Sam Trainor
non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni
nec querar in plumis delituisse Iovem
– Ovid, Heroides (‘Hermione Oriesti’) VIII.65–66
First Pose
Love’s overwhelming stroke,
holed up in my blood,
has scored your signature –
Cassandra – in my flesh,
the arrow’s cut so deep
in cardiac tissue
even the rot of the grave
won’t decompose your likeness.
I can soothe the woods
...
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