Today, whilst reading and translating the tale of Cupid and Psyche found in Apuleius's “The Metamorphoses” (written in the late 2nd century A.D., “The Metamorphoses” is the oldest extant Roman novel and may be the oldest novel in the world, predating by several centuries even Murasaki Shikibu's “The Tale of Genji”), I happened across a sentence of ( Read more... )

When I crawl out of my warm blanket cave in the morning and emerge into the kitchen, this is what I think about:
qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus,
frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,
nunc, positis nouus exuuiis nitidusque iuuenta,
lubrica conuoluit sublato pectore terga...
arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis ( Read more... )

I found this in my notebook.  I think I posted it on Facebook at the time, but I'd like to post it here, too.  The format is a tanka (5-7-5-7-7).

SummerIt's hotter inside ( Read more... )

My jaws crush your jaws,
my teeth your eyes.
I break your spine and devour you --
you, and your unborn young --
not from hunger or desire,
but from pride and despair.