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A Ballade of Myopia

Friend, thank you for your poems; I feel sure
Within them wrought in most exquisite verse
Are sentiments to make the spirit soar
With all the arts the Muses can rehearse.
But cursive script contains an inbuilt curse!
You ask for my opinion... Yet, indeed,
To tell the truth (and keep my comment terse!),
Your writing is too difficult to read!

A contract to sign?, Omina absint! -
"Caveat lector" is the prudent lex.
Escape clauses may lurk in the small print,
One should submit it to a score of checks!
But six-point font seems custom-built to vex!
(It is not typeface, it is poppy-seed!)
So I'll not sign! - For till I get new specs,
The letouts are too difficult to read!

I love my love (he signs himself as "Zeb")
Through all the depths and heights of cyberspace!
We murmur our sweet nothings through the web...
At each down-loading how my pulses race!
But can I be quite sure that I can trace
True love in the douce honey he has keyed?
Alas, till I can see him face-to-face,
His subtext is too difficult to read!

                  Envoi

Prince, I am bard, not prophet! Though you call
On me for help, and I perceive, indeed,
The "Mene, Mene, Tekel" on your wall...
Your future is too difficult to read!

A contest entry

Please do not feel obliged to comment - and if you do comment, please understand that it may be some time before I respond.

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Comments

1 - 6 of 6

  • nature
    August 10

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    The dialogue...

    ... and humour in the poem with the down to earth attitude are beautifully captured considering the poem is a translation.
    I am not conversant with the true language from where this script was translated.

    But do know how easy it is to error in a translation even if you have mastered both languages.

    Can't stop laughing at the last two line:

    "The "Mene, Mene, Tekel" on your wall...
    Your future is too difficult to read!"

    With respects.

    • Vera Rich
      August 10
      Edit | Reply
      But THIS is not a translation ... I do write original things as well... even though translation has, to date, brought me the greater rewards!

      • nature
        August 10
        Edit | Reply

        Sorry

        I should not have missed the Title's significance.

        Keep my eyes open for fine prints behind the lines.

        Thanks for pointing out; Truly my oversight.

  • ecrivain01
    June 2, 2008

    Edit | Reply

    LOL ...

    the future is too difficult for any of us to read.

    I do hope you're beginning to feel better.

  • piccola silver member
    April 11, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I smiled all through this! It is kind of tongue-in-cheek and I love it. Your use of Latin is wonderful and you even resort to the Bible at the very end. Well, at least that hand writing on the wall was easily read if not at first understood. Thank you for your entry.


  • TanyaB
    July 25, 2006
    Edit | Reply
    Bravo! You are quite brilliant, aren't you? I will have to add you to my list of favorites. Maybe if I keep reading your works I can learn something.

1 - 6 of 6