tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33505845670878583092012-02-16T01:23:50.786-08:00Cruelty is presumably not the essence of all human history. But the spectacular evidence of human cruelty, causing pain wilfully, cannot be disregarded indulgently.Sarsilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07317583927902809361noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350584567087858309.post-8832631257831712002008-03-03T05:00:00.001-08:002008-03-03T05:33:32.025-08:00<div align="center">Tremor abest treni</div><div align="center">post viam ferream dirutam, </div><div align="center">hic abhinc annos plures.</div><div align="center">Hodie Cypridis insulam</div><div align="center">Viridis Linea dissecat.</div><div align="center">In ora cruoris Venerei, </div><div align="center">sub clivis montis Troodii,</div><div align="center">perdita zona gemmata.</div><div align="center">O Cyprus!</div><p align="center"><br /><br /> </p><div align="center">Campus iuxta Larnacam</div><div align="center">nos tam fortiter angit.</div><div align="center">Est ibi formosa Morfu,</div><div align="center">exul urbs, nomine digna suo.<br />- Cyrenia! Tu quoque longe</div><div align="center">remota loco proprio.</div><div align="center">In Turci maris tutela</div><div align="center">alieno lates in gremio.</div><div align="center">Usque manet Crescens Luna</div><div align="center">et Viridis fertur Linea.</div><div align="center">Num reliqua possint addi</div><div align="center">praeter Pafon Leucosianve?</div><p align="center"> </p><p align="center">- Fuit exodus Famagustae.</p><p align="center">Ex castro Famagustae tu<br />orientem spectas, Othello!</p><p align="center">Polluis tu tibi mentis undam,</p><p align="center">foris cum fluctus aestuant.</p><p align="center">Mare luit, mordet, devorat</p><p align="center">hasce duas oras.</p><p align="center">A Princeps Cypri phantasmatum!</p><div align="center">- Famagustae nemo spirat.</div><p align="center"><br /> </p><div align="center"></div><p align="center"><br /> </p><div align="center"></div><p align="center"><br /> </p><div align="center"></div><p align="center"><br /> </p><div align="center">JS MMII</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3350584567087858309-883263125783171200?l=sarsila-prosa-poetria.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Sarsilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07317583927902809361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350584567087858309.post-32748532936463454732007-06-23T00:57:00.000-07:002007-06-27T07:14:36.178-07:00<div align="center">On first August, 1571, Famagusta, in Cyprus, fell to the victorious Turkish arms. Marcantonio Bragadino, the great Venetian commander, had to accept the Ottoman terms of surrender. He was not exposed to the enemy by treachery, for it was the fiend who betrayed the Venetian.<br /><br />After having visited a horrible catalogue of spectacular cruelty and humiliation on Marcantonio, the Turks finally flayed him alive. Timothy Boatswain also points out that the hero's skin, stuffed with straw, was triumphantly paraded through the streets and symbolically consigned to a slave prison.<br /><br />Famagusta was the last Venetian outpost on the island of Aphrodite, held by Venice, "La Serenissima", since 1489. Nicosia (Levkosía), in her turn, fell as early as September 1570, and 30,000 people were massacred.<br /><br />***<br /><br />"I am still waiting for you,<br />Aphrodite, here in Cyprus.<br />Once more, I'll be patient and wait<br />until you come from Cythera,<br />to this pasture for horses,<br />to these blooming meadows<br />with so many flowers of April.<br />And when gentle breezes are blowing,<br />you, Immortal, will come to me."<br />(JS, 2002)<br /><br />***<br />[For further details, see my 'Bitter Lemons. Eulogy of Love and Cyprus'. Tampere University Press. Tampere, 2002; T. Boatswain and C. Nicolson, 'A Traveller's History of Greece'. Athens 1991]</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3350584567087858309-3274853293646345473?l=sarsila-prosa-poetria.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Sarsilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07317583927902809361noreply@blogger.com0