Wealth... .....

I've been reading  "Wealth" ...the play by Aristophanes..........

Wow!! who does this woman think she is?

Well I spied the book at a car boot sale in Boscastle in Cornwall and it was only 50p....so I thought ,  "why not give it a go and educate yourself a bit Geraldine".

I think the sale was to raise funds for the town as many of the inhabitants are still without homes after the horrible flood that occured a couple of years ago destroying many ancient and historic houses.

Anyway ..I was to say the least... overwhelmed by the play and the way that Aristophanes put the thoughts and words together as if he were writing those thoughts today.

I'm quite aware that the play is translated and that the translator may have put his interpretation on parts of it... but even accepting that ...and thinking of the political, financial and ethical shenanigans worldwide over the last few years...it's pretty close to the bone.

Isn't that something...that Greece was in the same position then as now?...then being around 400 b.c.

You may ...lovely follower...now give up and not read any further...but I think that you would miss the best...if you did so.!!!

Excerts from "Wealth", by Aristophenes

Translated by...Alan H.Sommerstein
(in which wealth is blind)

Chremylus...(an ancient Farmer) speaking to Poverty (a horrific goddess):  "The present state of our human life can only be described as utter madness and lunacy. Many wicked men live in prosperity through their ill-gotten gains, while others of great virtue are poor and hungry and always accompanied by you............

Poverty speaks....You are certainly very easily persuaded to lose your wits ! You're real members of the Stuff and Nonsense Club! If what you desire were to happen, it would by no means be to your advantage. If Wealth were to see once more and divide himself in fair shares to all, no-one would pursue any trade  or craft any more. And with no trades or crafts, who'll do your metalwork? Who'll build your ships? Who'll be your tailors, your turners, your cobblers, your brickmakers, your launderers, your tanners? Who'll break up  the clods with his plough and harvest the fruits of the Goddess of Corn, if it's open to him to forget about all that and live in idleness?

Chremylus....What rubbish you talk! all those things you mentioned, why, our slaves will do them for us.

Poverty....And where will you get your slaves from?

Chremylus....Buy them of course.

Poverty...But why should anyone sell them, if he's already got all the money he wants?..............

..........     further down page....
Poverty...You won't even have a bed to lie on: there won't be any. No carpets: who's going to weave if he's not short of money? No scents to perfume the bride with, no expensive rich-coloured clothes to dress her in.And if you can't have any of these things, what on earth is the point of being rich?............

Hmmmmmm!      ...and so on.   

The whole play is really quite funny and gets the message across very subtley as they say "slowly slowly catchy monkey"   

The River Irwell

So...did old Lowry sit beside the fluss?
and did he think I'll paint that lot one day?
or did he only see the children run
 barefoot across the stinking bank
toward their Salford homes
to pray for hotpot on the stove.

Did Lowry hear about the one who'd had enough
when times were thin and thinness was in vogue?
who sank into the mud and stayed in it
between the empty prams and beery glass?
is that the reason Lowry stayed so long
when he had reasons of his own to up and go?.

They called his people... matchsticks...that they were
such skinny children, all of them unknown.
they've planted trees now where there once were weeds
and the river's rancid  smells are sanitised.
proud Irwell once the Roman's northern fort
now has the cache of Lowry's tender daubs.

L.S.Lowry the painter lived in Salford near the Irwell River.
Today we took our granddaughter to see the art in The Whitworth Gallery, and passed by the River now all clean and pretty , My friend grew up within the shadow of the factory buildings that Lowry painted and knew the scenes as home.
Much of Lowry's work now hangs in The Lowry Gallery on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal

This is for Magpie Tales 116

                                                                   and Poetry Pantry 99

I'm also adding this in to this week's poetry pub for dVerse.week 43...what fun!