Speak, Memory

One of the oldest poems in print is the Odyssey.  Though often translated as "Sing, Muse," the first two words of the epic are perhaps more accurately translated as "Speak, Memory."  At least that is what I gathered from a class discussion on Stanley Lombardo's translation, which uses "memory."  The cover for his translation is an "earthrise" photo from one of the Apollo missions, a choice I quite liked. I like space in general, too, and most things to do with outer space.

Back then, of course, before the stuff was even written down, memory was the ultimate resource of the poet.  In the time of oral traditions, the memory of the bard was the text of the poem.  If you buy into body/soul dichotomies, you could say the poet's memory was the soul and the telling was the body. Each telling, like a human body, would have been unique in some way.  Maybe some had six toes on their right foot.  Maybe some were midgets.  Maybe some were beautiful women - like the beautiful women we think we remember, but when we rack our brains for the length of her hair, the subtle curves of her jaw, the precise colors of her iris, we are left with the singular, empty sense that she was beautiful, and nothing else.