In later life, Meleager moved the island of Kos. Heliodora had died, and now Meleager's wandering eye turned to the beautiful young men of the island, who seemed to make a sport of seducing their older admirers. The raging jealousies of Meleager's earlier poems gives way to a voluptuous appreciation of human beauty. So now I commence adapting these poems...
THE HUNGRY EYE
by Brett Rutherford
adapted from Meleager, The Greek Anthology, xii, 106
I was deceived about Beauty.
One thing has crowded
all other Beauties out,
this one: perfect! My hungry eye
feeds on sunlight; sunlight
feeds off magnificent Myiscus.
All those I thought I adored
seem shapeless lumps, or stones
fit only for a blind man's
fancy, reading augury.
He, this one, is everything
and all things. Do my own eyes,
drunk with pleasure, fasten
on his, as soul to soul
are drawn together?
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