For some reason, in putting together this potpourri, I recalled the famous line from the prison warden (Strother Martin) in the movie Cool Hand Luke: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”

That said, I hope these very short poems are clear enough! First there are two in English, followed by prose translations into français y español of the second of the two. Il y a ensuite quatre lignes absurdes en français, mit einem deutschen Titel (grâce à Freud et Napoléon). And, finally, a yet lighter poem, though with a long title, in English only.

The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals

How many olives did the ancient Greeks eat?

Of course, goats and lambs: they also had meat,

And let’s not forget Ukrainian wheat.

But how many olives did those Greeks eat?

Here’s what I’d say ’bout your minimum wage

Here’s what I’d say ’bout your minimum wage,

Try raising it 10 percent.

And if after that your GDP rises,

You can count your money well spent.

Traductions en prose/en prosa

• Voici ce que je dirais à propos de votre salaire minimum: Essayez de l’augmenter de 10 %, et si après cela, votre PIB augmente vous pouvez considérer que votre argent a été bien dépensé.
• Esto es lo que diría yo sobre tu salario mínimo: intenta aumentarlo un 10 %, y si después de eso tu PIB aumenta, podrás considerar que tu dinero ha sido bien gastado.

quatre lignes…

Die Anatomie ist das Schicksal

(Une puissance supérieure me pousse à un but que j’ignore)

Elle a des fesses sorbet-citrons.

Qu’elles ne deviennent pas trop collantes !

Et le nez retroussé attaché au giron,

Puis-je ne pas y penser trop longtemps !

From Freud, « Der Untergang des Ödipuskomplexes », 1924 (« La disparition du complexe d’Œdipe »):

Die Anatomie ist das Schicksal, um ein Wort Napoleons zu variieren. (Pour transposer un mot de Napoléon : l’anatomie c’est le destin).

Le mot de Napoléon:

Une puissance supérieure me pousse à un but que j’ignore.

yet lighter poem . . .

A poem which has been influenced, at least in part, by Samuel Pepys blessing Almighty God for sending him a sudden and unexpected payment of his salary after he had been on a spending spree

If only you knew how impulsively I sin –

A second croissant if the first is warm,

And ice-hockey replays till early morn.

And all this on a Sunday! (It now occurs to me.)

What hope can there be for a man so depraved?

Thank God I’ve slept late and am bent on reform,

And that last night my team found a way to win,

And that in this café, we confess while we eat.

P.S.: It may be noted that King Charles II, the English king for a goodly portion of the adulthood of Pepys (portrait at right), once stated that God would not “make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way.” And I have read that he made sure to respect this principle, for example by fathering at least 14 illegitimate children, none of whom seems to have come to much. A contemporary of Charles’s wrote that “he had as good a claim to a kind interpretation as most men.” (Source: Britannica article on the Stuart Restoration)

— Poem(s) and photograph by William Eaton.

Check out Eaton’s latest collection of poetry and prose: 4 billion eggs.