Reenactorisms
(Five Poems in English)
- Historical Musings
the king of sicily fought bravely for jerusalem
victory grasped from the jaws of defeat
ah the late glories of autumn years
then he sailed back to his island
but disappeared somewhere in the sea
and his heir had to find the proper posture
the right face expression the most appropriate mix
of sadness and decisiveness
at learning the bad and good news
your noble father fell in a naval battle sire
which by right makes you our next sovereign
forty-five provinces around the mediterranean
constantinople saved and the holy city taken
just before the start of the next historical period
of course we'll order mass for our late master
but alas! my father will not see the new world
he'll never speak to the western natives
never taste tobacco and chocolate
such is fate such our human mortality
prince or pauper we're all dust
for we suffer equally
in reversals known to those of us
that spent their youth
in front of a pc playing total war
- Helmsong: a Historical Reenactor's Ad for Item Exchange
Lo! light's still not leaving, shades not lengthening,
borderlands bravely in peace-league brought
as men are mindful of courteous manners.
Bright that bone-keeper, by Robert built,
given to Géza our captain for glory,
Rome to remind us. Craft here is rich,
stones are seen (glass to the sightless).
Happy, not haughty, wisely our headman
praise did pronounce when the helm passed
on Marco's eye-tower. Meet both helm-masters,
bright sits on brow this gilded brass!
- Happy, Tired Reenactors
(Written at the Camp in Carnuntum)
home-coming back home-coming happily
from that long trip barefoot
with one with two left bare feet
home-coming from our new camelot
from there where on their spears
they lean two tired men
on danube's strand
they with a tired step
the king of the iazyges from the north
and from the south the heir of aeneas
they slowly enter now the river
the ribbon blue of the danube
they're almost drown into the border
and each of them is looking at the other
no words nor latin nor barbaric
unnecessary now both tongues
now they exchange
a sworded belt forged in mediolanum
for an old cloak and brooch with it
and then back south and north they head
each one in his own desert place
- The Oracle of Claros, 3rdc. AD
Translated from Koine Greek
Born of Himself, with no mother, unteachable, and also changeless,
not being containéd in names, yet naméd and living in fire:
He is God. We, then, His angels, are parts of His Godhead for sure,
and to the seeker of godlike, pure and unmixéd essence,
He thus proclaims: that the Aether is God the All-seeing, and so you
ought now to praise Him at sunrise, watching the East in full wonder.
- The Only Positive Phrase
(Palaeologan Court)
(Written in Tekfur Sarayı, İstanbul)
of all the writings on that last and tragic period
there's just one phrase of merrier mood
a castilian adventurer pedro tafur by name
tells us a little courtyard with some stone benches
just by the palace library
was always well provided with boardgames and dice
i find it endearing
this shaded courtyard for meetings and talks
minutes of leisure over chess and backgammon
or even older games
some respite among the troubles
of a city beleaguered
June, 2022
Translated from the Bulgarian by Manol Glishev