Hold Back the Dawn

 by Brett Rutherford

     adapted from Meleager, The Greek Anthlogy, v, 172

What I intended to do
with Meno, one summer night
cannot contain, Short,

too short, the span between
Venus the evening star,
and Venus again
     of the morning.

Look, with a lad
     so willing, I feel
young again myself.
Five times in as many
hours, not bad!

We have one night,
    and one night only,
as his watchful parents
intend to whisk him away
to their summer cottage,
one night to wash away
my bitter sorrows
     with love’s laughter.

So, Morning Star, you bane
of love, why not oblige me
by turning your course backwards,
until, as Evening Star,
you prelude again my
     extended efforts?

You did this once for Zeus —
all know the story — so that
Alcmene would be
     thoroughly overcome,
engendering Heracles:
now that’s a night’s work!

I understand reluctance.
Moving some planet about
and drugging the sun
to delay his business,
would cause a tumult
among astronomers,
     and Ptolemy
would cast his ordered spheres
into the waste-bin
if he noticed it.

But listen, planet dear,
the goddess and her son
are on my side. A poet’s
reputation is at stake.
Imagine my immortal
renown as a lover if he,

among those young men
idling in the agora,
saw me and pointed and said:

“Look there! You’d never guess
that middle-aged Meleager,
a peer among poets, invoked
some planetary magic so that —
I swear I do not exaggerate —
I was ten times topped
between dusk and dawn.”

Planet of love, turn back!