Charmides
kago akousas (fourth days) in kudianerotesia
another day confined, the dog
paces the gate, listening for
her long-absent master. but who
should she come home to meet,
reunion of the heart. and how
should we survive the relation.
not because its in a book,
but because its in our blood,
we know the end of Argos.
and i, at least, am struck by wonder.
i break and shiver. in dreams woven
these underwater syllables.
i weigh, as it were a ratio: our three,
your four. i hold, on fourth days
the dog takes rest.
when hearing, o hearing, i hear
of being silent involuntary
from beings silent involuntary.
κἀγὼ
ἀκούσας
(the first fourth happening
tomorrow)
mogis pos
zero-act play with a false sonnet
(by the window, plush elephant withheld)
leash-lady: play dead.
dog: what a world! what a world.
leash-lady: no, for real. play dead.
(dog reads Shakespeare)
leash-lady: so?
dog: i wrote a poem.
leash-lady: uh-oh. whats it called?
dog: “a sonnet grows askant the brook”
(leash-lady snorts, un-lady-like)
dog: (clears throat)
Our juggled heads as dog and bone,
Ophelias hair and Hamlets one;
Keep Sycorax far from Prospero,
For Mirandas mobile merciful;
My tears, lit years, rage Lears at me,
For Gloucester sees me feelingly;
His daughters blew askant the brook,
His book mere nook til soul partook;
But theres one king, be Yorrick, we,
Dissolves mine-own got-sovereignty.
We run as we run into poetry,
We run as we run through the willow.
(waits indefinitely for applause)
leash-lady: dont you dare make me say it.
dog: (proudly) doggerel!
leash-lady: (painting her nails) im going to need
more of a conceptual diagram.
dog: no.
leash-lady: (with stern look) but no
one else will. no one
else will.
dog: (puzzled) where have i heard that line before . . .
(begins speaking as an aside) and how
is she so good at this? how does she
know to do all of this? and why
is everybody looking at me,
when shes always been
far more interesting
and beautiful
than i?
leash-lady: (rolls her eyes) draw.
(she hands a piece of chalk to dog, who,
after much protestation, reluctantly in-
stantiates a blackboard.)
dog: okay. (takes a deep breath, narrows
eyes, retrieves scent-memory) as we
discover, we being irreducible —
(dog draws a big circle on the board.)
leash-lady: thats they, not we.
(leash-lady goes to the board and draws
two dots.)
dog: (wide-eyed and paws in the air) o indeed are we
suspended here, in a moment of separation.
and i imagine, i imagine, o in my imagination,
the purpose, our purpose, here might be,
to show the impossibility of egoistic
or abstracted or formulaic or activity-
independent explanation or even
any non-relational, un-
adaptive, a-
temporal
mode
or method
of expression.
leash-lady: explanation of what?
dog: us.
leash-lady: so anyway. here we are, two
dots, and the world, or chaos, on the out-
side, is here. right? “no exit”, like Sartre.
dog: i, at least, dont think thats the worst
analogy, but our performance feels text-
urally different from a play? like, more
chewy? more of a chew-toy?
leash-lady: hence the drool.
(dog looks sheepish)
leash-lady: nevermind. so about the pharmakon,
is this like, we party while the world
is burning? drugs and booze?
and opiates . . . wouldnt be
the worst thing.
dog: (whimpers, glances askant)
leash-lady: ah yes, the elephant in the room.
(dog howls)
leash-lady: come on, spit it out.
(dog paws face)
leash-lady: or youll never see your precious
little elephant again! at the blackboard! go!
dog: (sighs deeply, erases dots) okay. forget
the dots.
leash-lady: thats too bad. the dots seemed happy.
dog: well, appearances can be deceiving. no,
the dots were just high. on a different drug.
thats not the kind of drug we have.
i mean, that we are.
leash-lady: wait, how can we be the drug?
i never agreed to that!
dog: (depressed) i hate existentialism. really
i do.
leash-lady: draw, dog!
dog: (takes up chalk dutifully) so heres
a circle, imagine its a sphere. let this, we,
be we.
leash-lady: all smooth and even like that, huh?
dog: (looks at circle, which has been unevenly
drawn) well, what do you expect from a dog?
leash-lady: continue.
dog: (defensively) im just a dog, not
an elephant, or even
an elephant expert.
leash-lady: (aside) clearly. (out-
loud) draw!
dog: so at the moment, we are testing the limits
of the elephant. we are, as you indicate, pretty
bipolar.
leash-lady: okay. so the imaginary sphere
has poles. arent those
like dots?
dog: we being the poles, of a spherical field —
leash-lady: a field, like of grass?
dog: not like a meadow field. like a magnetic
field, like Faraday. we are meaning, like
a magnetic field.
leash-lady: so?
dog: its just, like, kaleidoscopic, like (sniffs
the air) correspondances,
leash-lady: not now, with the french. not
now, with the Baudelaire.
(dog in feelings)
leash-lady: sober up, dog. draw more.
dog: okay. right now, we are suspended from the act.
and time, without activity, loses its field of relation. so,
were a little stuck. you versus i, master versus slave,
but like, a friendlier version. i hope.
have you ever read Hegel?
leash-lady: (face in hands) why is this my life . . .
dog: yes, sorry, sorry, sorry. dont read Hegel.
please, go take a very long nap instead.
(aside) an ex used to say she had Platon-
gefühl. he was a Hegelian.
leash-lady: (sternly) i can hear you. and how
is that relevant?
dog: because it brings up, like vomit — have you
noticed that occasional feeling of nausea
we have?
leash-lady: yes, and? have you been eating beach-
poo again?
dog: (sighs) i miss the beach.
leash-lady: im about to close the ipad screen.
draw!
dog: yes, where was i . . . oh, the memory. and
the remembering. its relevant because all
of this evokes in me a very strange
mixture
of feelings.
leash-lady: feelings? (frowns) is this just
about feelings? is this —
a kissing book?
dog: yes, and —
leash-lady: is it just a distraction, just
a feel-good movie, just
to pass the time, soft
and comfy-like,
amidst
(gestures out the window)
this chaos?
dog: (tired) not quite, i imagine, judging by what
weve undergone, so far, at least. to me, it feels
kind of like . . . some kind of animal
exercise . . . (trails off, wags tail)
leash-lady: wait. you mean you don’t know?
dog: of course not!
leash-lady: (exasperated) then why on earth
would you be dragging us
through all of this?
(puppy-dog eyes)
leash-lady: what does it feel like then?
dog: oh, so so much. hope, then terror, then joy,
then grief, then wonder, then joy, then funny,
then grief, then terror, then pain,
then wonder, then sorrow,
then hope . . .
(dog chases own tail)
leash-lady: it seems awfully ego-gratifying
for supposedly being ego-death.
(dog barks)
leash-lady: bad dog.
dog: yes, well. funny you should say that. ive
not gotten here by being very clever, you see.
leash-lady: again, with the all-about-you. what
about we? spit it out!
dog: (adjusts glasses) okay. my current theory, if
you forced me, would be that we are some kind
of cosmic
heart
muscle.
(cringes all-around)
dog: youre the one who made me draw a diagram!
leash-lady: im not, actually.
dog: then who —
leash-lady: dont yell at me.
dog: okay. im sorry, ill try not to.
leash-lady: thank you. anyway, what does it,
what do they, as we, do?
dog: we do, like this —
(dog waves paws around the blackboard
in a very un-doglike manner, wags
tail and whines
like a dog)
leash-lady: clarifying absolutely nothing. ok,
quick, cause this is getting very long, and i can tell
you could go on forever. if were bi-
polar, what are our poles?
dog: well, heres the not-so-easy part. my sense is
we-will-worker-bees through many situationships.
and we have many things yet to learn about us.
leash-lady: there seems to be a great deal
of repetition. will there be more
of that? repetition?
dog: probably. but some of the grand
patterns seem to be something like,
death versus insanity?
despair versus mania?
tragedy versus comedy?
love versus grief?
leash-lady: that sounds very dark. are you
okay?
(dog labels the circle with polarities,
triangles, vectors, and other notation.)
leash-lady: wheres the chaos, didnt
you say you were
a chaotician?
dog: (looks up, tilts head) geometrician. im
a geometrician. (barks in Kuna Greek)
leash-lady: who deals with the chaos, then?
dog: (shrugs) dunno, maybe cats.
leash-lady: but those things you wrote,
about love and death, et cetera, they
seem mostly like antagonisms.
i thought dog was mans best friend.
dog: yes. and like everybody in Hamlet,
they, or we, remain terribly resolved, solips-
sismuses, abysmal ones, destined —
leash-lady: doomed?
dog: yes —
leash-lady: tragic?
dog: — at least, until we —
leash-lady: if we, you mean.
dog: yes! if and until we, as whoever we are,
enact and express them —
leash-lady: which are, psychic-cosmic abysms?
dog: — yes, through our own
relation. dialectical mediation,
if you will.
leash-lady: Hegel again?
dog: (frowns) more OG than that.
leash-lady: meaning?
(dog jumps through the circle on the black-
board, which has caught on fire, as if
it were a hoop)
(leash-lady waits)
(dog jumps back out)
leash-lady: and you wont find it in a text-
book — why?
dog: no. yes. because the plushie (points nose
at elephant) was made to be un-chewable, or
inedible, in any other way than by how we
are partaking of it, or really, partaking
through it, if we were being we,
not you and i, as we seem
to be being
now.
leash-lady: you mean to say . . . it can only
be read as a we?
dog: (dreamily) my plushie can only be chewed by love.
leash-lady: that strikes me as —
dog: fuck patriarchy!
leash-lady: — as astoundingly unlikely.
dog: (rolls over)
leash-lady: that seems almost . . . post-modern.
almost avant garde . . . or is it
a religious thing?
dog: (tongue out) were classics now, baby!
leash-lady: (winces) okay dog, continue.
dog: but im scared. (whines)
leash-lady: well, i believe in you.
and i believe you can do it.
because ive seen you do it.
and it doesnt have to be perfect,
but it does have to be you. so,
dog,
do.
dog: (after receiving much encouragement) okay.
only as we, can the plushie, and so it seems,
the entire elephant corpus, be sniffed-out
and un-dug —
leash-lady: and eaten?
dog: well i, at least, try
to eat everything i find.
leash-lady: aha. but tell me, why
would an elephant be made
in this way, as strange
to eat, as this one?
dog: survival.
leash-lady: but why is it a plush elephant, at all?
dog: i dunno, being neither elephant, nor plushie.
but being a dog, i suppose it wants to be a good
guardian. maybe, the plushie protects itself
from self-serve, self-serving eating.
leash-lady: intriguing. almost like how
an elephant wouldnt wish
to be eaten.
dog: well, its not potatoes!
leash-lady: (laughs) but i am questions
inside questions . . .
dog: also, maybe it protects the souls of dogs
by never letting we-dogs get stuck in soliloquy.
leash-lady: like Hamlet?
dog: (frowns) or graveyard clowns . . .
leash-lady: dont get discouraged. draw.
(dog motions at the flaming circle on the board)
dog: so, if it-we pulls us-two out of madnesses
that wait at either of our two poles, then
even as were bipolar, we even us out.
leash-lady: in our relational field.
dog: and because it binds us with each-
other, it also becomes, so-
to-speak, a poetry-self-
guardian — or even,
a guard dog. like
dog-school, but
like poetry,
for we.
leash-lady: ironic.
dog: whats irony?
leash-lady: that im here guarding
the guardian plushie
from the guard dog.
(puppy-dog eyes)
leash-lady: now let me guess. none of this drawn-out
explanation, which wasnt altogether un-
enlightening, could really be any kind
of replacement, neither for the parts,
nor for the whole, of the previous
or any of the subsequent
wordless moments
upon which we
have built
ourself . . .
dog: my queen! (walking on hind-legs)
leash-lady: laying it on thick, are we?
(dog plays dead)
leash-lady: uh-huh. methinks the puppy doth pro-
test too much. already. again.
dog: (risen) theres one more thing id like to say
leash-lady: of course.
dog: one little word can carry a lot of baggage.
leash-lady: indeed. so can one dogs nose.
dog: so i was trying to write a soliloquy
about that, to go here.
leash-lady: uh-huh.
dog: (with fanfare) but then,
i cut it —
snip!
(applause)
leash-lady: this changes everything, and yet,
this changes nothing at all.
(oohs and aahs)
dog: and then the formatting really boggled
my indie-web blog, and my dog-brain too.
(laughter)
leash-lady: you know, dog, you dont have to write it
down all at once. sometimes, you can just
put the work down gently, at the end
of a long day. self-care,
other-care,
we-care,
it-care.
(silence)
dog: it cares! it cares!
leash-lady: i didnt say that —
dog: so, can we please have
our elephant back now?
leash-lady: beg
(dog begs)
κἀγὼ
grabbed by the dog
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
ye syes yes yes yes yes yes yesss
o my godddddgodgodgod theres an elephant
guess what color!
my plushie is a psychedelic substance
it hascome to take over the universe, yall —
κἀγὼ
from the unspeakable contingencies of time (a poetry for sisterhood)
(all, at least
it said)
then by me, these two voices en-joined let be,
to we, sisters in offering promise and prayer
as slight temper to make the passing storms
for held jointly, in common, though wounds, in-
deed, in kinship be, of beloveds, the poems
and a spoken word, silent heretofore — koina
my pieces impart, as you impart, as we impart
as parts - carried - apart of ones-being-in-love
by toils and grief and all-possible-turns
now to share it, O world, we let her be sung
the wind-gathering-song of our broken heart
. . .
(therefore)(or certainly not) beautifully by you
(does it seem)(do you seem)(seem you) to be said,
and do you accept
the word?
(πάνυ γε
ἔφη)
οὐκοῦν καλῶς σοι
δοκεῖ λέγεσθαι
καὶ ἀποδέχῃ
τὸν λόγον
Charmides 156ξ
//
καὶ ἐμοὶ ταῦτα συνεύχου
κοινὰ γὰρ τὰ τῶν φίλων
Phaedrus 279ξ
mogis pos
🌓
being carried apart
or(am i
really)(it says)(be i n g l y
or)have you not sensed and perceived(
and have you not been run into — )that
these(girlssssss) in this way, they speak
(and lay )(by speaking and laying) . . .
and (she has and holds and carries
and you have and hold and carry
and) it makes flow and pour
and shed and scatter
and shatter (by
the forked-
tongue-
vip-
er
)
?
ἢ οὐκ ᾔσθησαι
ὅτι ταῦτα οὕτως
λέγουσίν τε καὶ ἔχει
155ξ
//
mogis pos
mogis pos
mogis pos
as harmonium despair (we trial six-handed instruments) as immortalities
exhalation:
we need every breath you give
we must bind it with our own
so the One receives our dyad
inhalation:
(word being soul)
instrument:
by through-takings, would you shelter me,
O whistling, flute-playing-Pan,
through the body of a child,
through-bodied-father
embodying the all —
turnings-conjoined-
round O whole-
playing-part
grown-in, would you put-on your hands?
chord:
to take care is to hold
sisters crying-out
in-visibles
to cure
//
ἐκ δὴ
τούτου τοῦ λόγου
διαίταις
ἐπὶ πᾶν
τὸ σῶμα
τρεπόμενοι
μετὰ τοῦ ὅλου
τὸ μέρος
ἐπιχειροῦσιν
θεραπεύειν τε
καὶ ἰᾶσθαι
156ξ
//
mogis pos
wherein fearlessness be found our freedom
and once more, again, anew, how — possibly back-
wards, by the beach dog — bow wow — aouuu . . .
the aim — waiting and looking — for the she-head —
if someday, dri nkinsymposian-drunk, would be —
to take care — you take care — it would take care —
of herself by herself —
but without — us finishing it — we being — her soul —
we sending her up — in fearlessness — letting her howl —
O whole of a body, make me whole, to be whole —
our lunations, as do we, as we do — toward home —
remain many un-thinking-fool-ish-nesses . . .
καὶ αὖ
τὸ τὴν κεφαλὴν οἴεσθαι
ἄν ποτε θεραπεῦσαι
αὐτὴν ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς
ἄνευ
ὅλου τοῦ σώματος
πολλὴν ἄνοιαν εἶναι
//
mogis pos
psuche
wild
🌒
a sentence around ultra-violetting girls
for we are, O Charmides, the love-charming eyes,
and like this she-song, the sort not to claim powers
to make healthy and sound the lonely head,
but like youre already making equals delights,
twice-sevenning and hearing-do-gooding healers,
(you do good)(lets do good)(our best)(as we can),
whenever anyone, as you and me, comes to them-
selves, as pain-suffering eyes,
they say, somehow, by saying that it doesnt do,
to put hands on solitary selves (you make alone)(as
you, ultra-violetting, you were and will be crying
aloud) to cure the eyes,
but it(perforce, from prison)(it lets)(let it)would be
our girls, and at the same time, would be necessary
to take care of her-head,
if it would be destined, by intending to do, and indeed,
(i see you)(you see me)(we give sight)(to giving sight),
to have well, and to hold well, the shes of the eyes,
ἔστι γάρ,
ὦ Χαρμίδη
τοιαύτη οἵα μὴ δύνασθαι
τὴν κεφαλὴν μόνον ὑγιᾶ ποιεῖν
ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἴσως
ἤδη καὶ σὺ ἀκήκοας
τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἰατρῶν
ἐπειδάν τις αὐτοῖς προσέλθῃ
τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀλγῶν
λέγουσί που ὅτι
οὐχ οἷόν τε
αὐτοὺς μόνους ἐπιχειρεῖν
τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἰᾶσθαι
ἀλλ᾽ ἀναγκαῖον εἴη
ἅμα καὶ
τὴν κεφαλὴν θεραπεύειν
εἰ μέλλοι
καὶ τὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων εὖ ἔχειν
156β
//
mogis pos
the unheard-of sailing
beautifully at least are you, and you,
and we, even me, as we bow to the Muse,
from silence, to work, to make music.
for far more by you and her tresses of blue
shall we speak freely and fluently flow
round her sea-song, along, on the leaf,
of what sort me and you happen to be
being, she sings and she whispers it slow,
an unheard-of sailing, through the distance.
but just now, were becalmed, were in irons.
which turn of the tide or twist of a rope,
which way of the wind, from Delos the boat,
by teeth of a goat on his own green grass,
how would we, under grey, manifesto for you
the impasse, the power, all her own.
cause shes full of it too. kompsos
like the chomp on her bridal-white jib
of a child, crocodile, laughing.
καλῶς γε σύ
ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ
ποιῶν
μᾶλλον γάρ σοι
παρρησιάσομαι
περὶ τῆς ἐπῳδῆς
οἵα τυγχάνει οὖσα
ἄρτι δ᾽
ἠπόρουν τίνι τρόπῳ
σοι ἐνδειξαίμην
τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῆς
156α
cf Phaedo 99ξ-δ
down hard on his hunted hart
i know im the ugly sister
my poetrys too self-involved
i hear, hear the deepness glimmer
i criss-cross blew-eyes-resolved
so i lack the slightest word
to let you know i-really-do
so i give you this old thing
i pray to gods whats green gets through
beautifully at least you are to me
now you will find i love your ass
as we-making-together-be
a subtle feast undying grass
καλῶς γε σύ
ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ
ποιῶν
156α
//
kompsos
ritual persuasion
and he says,
then i shall write it down,
beside you,
the song.
but whether
(all of this is)
we being irreducible . . .
if you persuade me,
or even if not?
maybe (all of this is) really
just we being incorrigible?
(me and you, we-women laugh, and hes laughing too)
(i remember when you tasked me a simian-similar-ask)
(oh, its very important to him-and-us that this all be light-
hearted-funny. her laughter is the sound of the ego, dead
and dying many times over)(inside comedy inside tragedy
inside comedy until he is goodly dead)(tears our witness
as the armor of its insanity protects the truth)(humor is
the most difficult to carry. the loss of the comedy portion
of Aristotles poetics kills us here, but one thing i remember
he says — i dont have time to find the exact line, but did
you know, that poor Aristotles books werent written by him,
but reconstructed from lecture notes? well, one of the most
funny-being things was animals acting like humans, i ass-
umed also humans acting like animals. but i remember us
laughing at how un-funny that was.)(i said to the mask-
maker, isnt every mask a monkey mask?)(love, i demand
he agree)
if i-we persuade you-we,
he says,
O Socrates.
okay, okay. we
let we-being irreducible.
and the name of me,
which i-we will call,
would you-we perfect it?
if not, injustice
is we-without-you,
he says.
for yours is not some oligos logos
amongst we of the leaf.
but i
as being a child (make-music perfect tension relief)
by the names (which have been diverse and wild)
by the dresses (often inappropriately we-coded)
by the beach (and her sunrise you already kissed)
by the valley (and her cooling rivers i already miss)
by all of this here (& the seventh letter in my first)
always-already-remember-together-being-you
καὶ ὅς
Ἀπογράψομαι τοίνυν
ἔφη
παρὰ σοῦ τὴν ἐπῳδήν
πότερον
ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ
ἐάν με πείθῃς
ἢ κἂν μή
γελάσας οὖν
ἐάν σε πείθω
ἔφη
ὦ Σώκρατες
εἶεν
ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ
καὶ τοὔνομά μου
σὺ ἀκριβοῖς
εἰ μὴ ἀδικῶ γε
ἔφη
οὐ γάρ τι σοῦ ὀλίγος λόγος ἐστὶν
ἐν τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἡλικιώταις
μέμνημαι δὲ ἔγωγε
καὶ παῖς ὢν
Κριτίᾳ τῷδε
συνόντα σε
156α
//
mogis pos
🌑
we of the leaf (hemeteroi helikiotai)
we being irreducible (say you)(they say)(O saying one)(i say)(the saying)
that itself (it let)(let it) would be a leaf
but some song (she) sung upon the pharmakon (lets it)(it lets) be me
if someone would sing (she) along (you) and at the same time (me) (inquire)(use)(consult)(entreat)(experience) (being slightly wounded) by we
all in all in all we will make a (healthy) living tree (and overgrowingly) would make the pharmakon
but without (send it up)(let it grow wild)(accomplish it) of the song
no help would be (neither to nor from) of the leaf
καὶ ἐγὼ εἶπον
ὅτι αὐτὸ μὲν εἴη
φύλλον τι
ἐπῳδὴ δέ τις
ἐπὶ τῷ φαρμάκῳ
εἴη
ἣν εἰ μέν τις ἐπᾴδοι
ἅμα καὶ
χρῷτο αὐτῷ
παντάπασιν
ὑγιᾶ ποιοῖ
τὸ φάρμακον
ἄνευ δὲ
τῆς ἐπῳδῆς
οὐδὲν ὄφελος εἴη
τοῦ φύλλου
155ε
mogis pos (everyday tears)
same
you said
but were we the same
as you yourself were asking
if i would know and set it down
the medicine for my head, it
said, to leave you behind, to
work the pain through, by any
means, to hear you ask again
self-separating i answer-from
that i would know and set it down
who which really i
am he says truly
we
ὅμως δὲ
αὐτοῦ ἐρωτήσαντος
εἰ ἐπισταίμην
τὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς φάρμακον
μόγις πως
ἀπεκρινάμην
ὅτι ἐπισταίμην
τί οὖν
ἦ δ᾽ ὅς
ἐστίν
155ε
//
mugi-mugi pos
dear dailys
please note
future revisions
to previous days
maybe noted
mogis pos
it was the goat
who said
on beautys child speaking
placing under by the other
to be taken hold with care
lest over and against a lion
of that coming-going fawn
be seized a dividing spare
this cut of me would be
a kings delight to see
the first to meet us whole
for it seems to me itself
under such a creature
as we — i bleat — is caught
ὃς εἶπεν
ἐπὶ καλοῦ λέγων παιδός
ἄλλῳ ὑποτιθέμενος
εὐλαβεῖσθαι
μὴ κατέναντα λέοντος
νεβρὸν ἐλθόντα
μοῖραν αἱρεῖσθαι
κρεῶν
αὐτὸς γάρ μοι ἐδόκουν
ὑπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου
θρέμματος
ἑαλωκέναι
Charmides 155δ
cf Phaedo 61β
kudianerotesia (if man is mortal then what are we)
our eyes the sea to see
inside the armor of a dress
fire-setting-me
no longer in myself
they are it is
i am i say
i hold
as it were my law
the wisest to be
this englorification of we
by Love
εἶδόν τε
τὰ ἐντὸς τοῦ ἱματίου
καὶ ἐφλεγόμην
καὶ οὐκέτ᾽ ἐν ἐμαυτοῦ
ἦν
καὶ ἐνόμισα σοφώτατον εἶναι
τὸν Κυδίαν τὰ ἐρωτικά
155δ
of generosity in a state of war
two blood-soaked abortions (at least)and decades
of(mind)(mood)(me)(them)(-altering)birth-
control
for lack of place
for lack of safety
for gluttony of fear
my fear to bring a living thing
into the state of war
the all-against-all
so leave me, lead me inside
again and again, layer me in
your wordless moment
your clothes, your close the door
felt hard and soft and then gently
until its just us here
and those in the palaestra, altogether
(i was)(they were)flowing around us, in
a circle(it would)(will surround)entirely(shelter us)by care
until now
as it grows binding
and needful
O well-begotten, world-suffering, well-
begetting one, would you be born
could you still hear
my word to call my child
by fathers countless and guardians mighty
as our enfolding of generosity
καὶ οἱ ἐν τῇ παλαίστρᾳ
ἅπαντες περιέρρεον ἡμᾶς κύκλῳ
κομιδῇ
τότε δή
ὦ γεννάδα
Charmides 155δ
cf Aristotle nic ethics 1100b30
eta uh-
oh
🌗
our wordless moment
and after the showing
of Critias that i
would(suffer)be(ing)(it)he
knowing the pharmakon
and it(you) would look right into my eyes(is)(isis)
a sort of helplessness(amechanon)
and it(you were) leading up as(if) will(ing love to) ask
(would you be here forever
i am already here
were this my nature)
ἐπειδὴ δέ φράσαντος
τοῦ Κριτίου ὅτι ἐγὼ
εἴην ὁ
τὸ φάρμακον ἐπιστάμενος
ἐνέβλεψέν τέ μοι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς
ἀμήχανόν τι οἷον
καὶ ἀνήγετο ὡς ἐρωτήσων
155ξ
what drives me
toward (you)there
nevertheless
O beloved
i — already (pleasure-
mermaids)was at(they
were)an impasse
indeed my previously-
(delivering she)recklessness
had been knocked out
witch(her)(i-
was)(they had
been)having(and holding back) — i
as if altogether easily
by itself (what nerve)
will dialogue
(drives me insane
i do try sometimes not
to interrupt)
ἐνταῦθα
μέντοι
ὦ φίλε
ἐγὼ
ἤδη
ἠπόρουν
καί μου ἡ πρόσθεν
θρασύτης
ἐξεκέκοπτο
ἣν
εἶχον
ἐγὼ
ὡς πάνυ ῥᾳδίως
αὐτῷ
διαλεξόμενος
155ξ
for setting practice
who
(going)(coming)
between
me
and Critias
sits down
ὁ
δ᾽ ἐλθὼν
μεταξὺ
ἐμοῦ τε καὶ
τοῦ Κριτίου
ἐκαθέζετο
cf Phaedo 67δ