Eclipse

Happy Eclipse Day!

In 2007, I set a poem by Archilochus1 about a total eclipse visible in Greece in the seventh century BCE.

Nothing can surprise me now, nothing can astonish
or alarm me now the god of gods has galled the midday
into night and trimmed the light of the westering sun.
Surely anything can happen now, anything at all,
so brace yourselves for the sight of milk cows grazing
the dolphin-crowded seas, of sure-footed deer
and mountain goats crossing the talus of a cresting wave.

The performance above is by Joseph Baunoch, bass-baritone; Marissa Olin, alto flute; and Kawai Chan, piano.

Translated by American poet Sherod Santos in his collection Greek Lyric Poetry ↩