The False Creators of Poetic Fame

The False Creators of Poetic Fame

'O curas hominem! O quantum est in rebus inane!'
(O mortal man! O the vanity of things here below!)

Persius

Get away from me, you zombies, you human jellyfish,
you insignificant pygmies swarming like insects over thousands of judging panels!
Lugubrious as mafiosi, you heap privileges
on so-called 'great' poets who've written nothing of any worth, cretinous enemies of the Muses!

Prizes, prizes, prizes, even if you give them all the prizes,
you won't find another Keats, an Ovid or a Homer;
your influence and their fame will be as fleeting as wisps of straw in the breeze,
you who refuse to let in the true light while you murder poetry!

translated from the French of Athanase Vantchev de Thracy by Norton Hodges
11.10.08.