THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410030025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Derek Walcott, 1992 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, will read from his poetry at the 17th annual Old Dominion University literary festival. The reading begins at 8 p.m. in the Mills Godwin Building, Room 102. It is open to the public; cost is $10 for adults and $5 for students.
The following is an excerpt from Walcott's stage adaptation of Homer's ``The Odyssey,'' a production of which opened Friday at Arena Stage in Washington; the play runs through Nov. 6. This excerpt tells of the wandering Odysseus arriving home from the Trojan War after a 20-year absence:
Imagine the bitter ecstasy of Odysseus.
Imagine, after a hard night, coming home to your door.
Multiply that night by one week, by a month, Lord Jesus,
Multiply that month by a year, and then a score.
So you and the sunrise are climbing up your front step,
And some tree you knew looks suddenly twenty years older.
But that's not what's happening, that's why the homeowner wept,
As he felt the fingers of dawn touching his shoulder.
Ain't your house no more, your dog, your old lady, your cat,
Your son, your chair, your old coffee-cup, you're a bum.
A doormat marked `Welcome', they scrape their soles on your heart,
And you can't do nothing about it, wouldn't that be sump'n?
Twenty years, and you wind up a tramp, outside your own door.
Now, if you were that cat, tell me, brother, wouldn't you be sore?
Wouldn't you be sore? Come on now, brother. I would.
Man, I'd have their thighs for drumsticks and for wine?
Their blood! ILLUSTRATION: Derek Walcott
by CNB