Sunday, June 4, 2017

A translation of hieroglyphs from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili



A translation of hieroglyphs from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili:

1.
Bound ox offering of the king
the vulture and the eye syllable
held within the lodge of mouth
as the priest washes his hands
in the thread that runs between them
and ties the vessel shut
a grammar to trap the god and make king strong
an anchor tied to a goose
your hands strangle but discover a lamp
a window fastened to the flowering olive-branch
to see the birds in there fly up and down
the intracellular weft of all that’s seen.

2.
Lumbering aleph these chords binds
that issue from the box beneath the fire
that here form basins, pools, names
through which the priests carefully pour
learning their thread, fate, measure
geometry that traps us like demons
to explain again this familiar shape
my goose tied to the anchor
in order to light the rest of me
the little tree behind these copper leaves
that steals your tools

to work a death beyond our treasure.

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