Dialogue
mothers
we are invited to mampir
so we visit many mothers
they serve us coffee and jajan
the mothers always cry for us
one of my first lessons was
the mothers always cry
all the rivers of this island
from the secret doors of sight
must be their tears
//
🌕
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
so there is much more hope (elpis)
for friendship (philia) for them
from the deed (pragma)
rather than hatred (echthra)
to be born (genesthai)
// 232δ
ὥστε πολὺ πλείων ἐλπὶς φιλίαν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ πράγματος
ἢ ἔχθραν
γενέσθαι
complications of the heart
from afar i survey
the horizon of your heart
there is a vast ocean
holding a single pearl
how it turns and turns in turns
from nearby i listen
and do things and try to sit still
in a hospital waiting room
in a foreign country where
i had hoped to hold your hand
but inside i succumb
to your polishing of tears
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
supposing (themselves)
to be looked down upon
by those (who would not)
and to be serviced (opheleisthai)
by the ones together-being
// 232δ
ἡγούμενοι ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων μὲν ὑπερορᾶσθαι
ὑπὸ τῶν συνόντων δὲ ὠφελεῖσθαι
discipline
morning routines
i forgot to tell you
but i do them too
imagining the softness
my two hands
will find
too tempted
by the tantalizing touch
of your discipline
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
would not envy (phthoneein)
those who are together-being (suneinai)
but would hate (miseein)
those who would not (ethelein)
// 232δ
οὐκ ἂν τοῖς συνοῦσι φθονοῖεν
ἀλλὰ τοὺς μὴ ἐθέλοντας μισοῖεν
just you
the thunderstorm came and clapped
and passed through like gods
practicing my animal ears
until i could take a deep
and fearless nap
of dreams
i woke up wanting
just you
all over again
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
but however many
as happen (tugchanein)
not
(to be) loving (eran)
and otherwise
through excellence (arete)
passed through (prassen)
those they want (dein)
//
ὅσοι δὲ μὴ ἐρῶντες ἔτυχον
ἀλλὰ δι᾽ ἀρετὴν ἔπραξαν ὧν ἐδέοντο
//
this limasan is not a terror dream
(or how i came to Potro Joyo House)
strange and for a few years
maybe 2018 to 2022
(i moved to Indonesia in 2019)
i dreamed mostly about a flood
lately we live on the sawah
and i dream of earthquakes
(what happened in 2023 was
the dream to build a temple
transparently that is the one
that grabbed me by the throat
that was a hard-yanked chain
to re-make my heart pounding)
anyway i am in a skyscraper
(in tv cities like Philadelphia)
it starts to quake
the building sways as i rush down
the stairs or ladders or chutes or waterfalls
until i come spilling out into the street
well my dreams are hacks
last night as i ran out i looked up and saw
the tower sinuous begin to buckle
and bricks were busting a volcanic bubble
as i ran down the mountain to escape
the expanding smoke and debris
this limasan is not a terror dream
i do not wake up in a fright
(no real nightmares since U.S. America)
but they are disaster dreams
just now maybe like working it out
or making something from dream rubble
and last night it was a real earthquake
not too distant not too deep a 4.6
our home is a cathedral of teakwood
beloved architect vernacular
when it jiggles his bending pillars sound uncanny
old joints of salvage living in the ring of fire
//
the maskmaker writes
like gotong royong
& Hong Ulun Basuki Langgeng
🇮🇩
stranger like desire
you will come
into the desert
to know me
you will touch me like a stranger
as many strokes
as many surfaces
as many names
as many hungry palms
as your servant can carry
so empty this
your lick across the burning sand
electricity of my thirst
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
you will come (hekein)
into difference (diaphora)
with them
// 232δ
ἥξεις αὐτοῖς εἰς διαφοράν
//
red (palm) sugar
you will come
into the dessert
to taste them
you will eat fried plantains
ripened until soft and sweet
crunchy with red sugar
too hot for wasted time
i almost burn my tongue
flesh tender and yellow
greasy fingers with coconut
oil and sticky lips
but did you really
//
iced kepo
iced kepo is freshly-squeezed
orange juice with just-cracked
coconut water over ice
on a hot
day before the rain
comes
maybe the traffics religion is
theres something superficial
about s-e-x
//
(kepo also means gossip)
//
🌔
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and if examining (skopeein)
what is your own
you have a thought (phroneein)
better than theirs
// 232δ
ἐὰν δὲ τὸ σεαυτοῦ σκοπῶν ἄμεινον ἐκείνων φρονῇς
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
so having persuaded you
to be hated
by these
they set you down
in a desert (eremia)
of loved ones (philos)
// 232δ
πείσαντες μὲν οὖν ἀπεχθέσθαι σε τούτοις
εἰς ἐρημίαν φίλων καθιστᾶσιν
//
the beloveds embrace (on fitnah)
so having persuaded you
to be hated
by these
they set you down
in a desert
heart
to show the tranquility
of gold
by fire
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and of ones who possess (ktaomai)
some other good
they guard (phulassein)
the power (dunamis)
of each
// 232ξ
τῶν δὲ ἄλλο τι κεκτημένων ἀγαθὸν
τὴν δύναμιν ἑκάστου φυλάττονται
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and (fearing)
those who have been educated (paideuein)
that they would become (gignomai)
stronger (kreisson)
by togetherness (sunesis)
// 232ξ
τοὺς δὲ πεπαιδευμένους μὴ συνέσει κρείττους γένωνται
//
so i light a stick of the good dupa
then i explore your tender body for chora
gently gratified
i make a note for the future
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
fearing
those who possess (ktaomai)
property (ousia)
that they would overshoot (huper-ballein) them
with possessions (chremata)
/
fearing
those who possess (ktaomai)
being (ousia)
that they would overshoot (huper-ballein) them
with sembako (chremata)
// 232ξ
φοβούμενοι τοὺς μὲν οὐσίαν κεκτημένους
μὴ χρήμασιν αὐτοὺς ὑπερβάλωνται
//
inspired by this
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
because of which they turn away (apo-trepein)
the loved ones’ (eran)
communing together (sun-ousia)
with others
// 232ξ
διόπερ καὶ τὰς πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους τῶν ἐρωμένων συνουσίας ἀποτρέπουσιν
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
for many
are
the things that pain them
and all
that comes to be (gignomai)
they own (nomizein)
as their own harm
// 232ξ
πολλὰ γὰρ αὐτούς ἐστι τὰ λυποῦντα
καὶ πάντ᾽ ἐπὶ τῇ αὑτῶν βλάβῃ νομίζουσι γίγνεσθαι
//
or
and all
that comes to be (gignomai)
they consider to be (nomizein)
for their own harm
//
in the hieron
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
in likelihood (eikotos)
you would fear lovers (eran)
more
// 232ξ
εἰκότως ἂν τοὺς ἐρῶντας μᾶλλον ἂν φοβοῖο
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
but that
when you have given over
those things which you make (poieein)
the most of (peri pleistou)
great harm
comes to be (gignomai)
for you
// 232ξ
προεμένου δέ σου ἃ περὶ πλείστου ποιῇ
μεγάλην ἄν σοι βλάβην ἂν γενέσθαι
//
dessert first (so low)
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and when (as seems inevitable)
disagreement comes to be
and the mishap
in any other way
would be set down as common
to both
// 232β
καὶ ἄλλῳ μὲν τρόπῳ διαφορᾶς γενομένης κοινὴν ἂν ἀμφοτέροις καταστῆναι τὴν συμφοράν
//
selamat calendar complex
Ogoh-Ogoh for tilem today
and family calls and the gamelan calls
(seen here, here, here, here?, nsfw?)
when having constructed our demons
we carry them through the streets
and shake them and fight them
and turn them and burn them
and ooh and aah and waow
and laugh and breathe fire
and then
collapse
into
Nyepi tomorrow
no outgoing or talking
or fire or electricity
or internet
or working
or lovemaking
we let the ogoh-ogoh
believing it to be uninhabited
pass harmlessly over the island
so tomorrow will be silent
in the valley as well
no posts from me ok
then (we await
confirmation from the village
its all local time) Eid al-Fitr . . .
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and surely
if fear arises
for you
supposing friendship (philia)
to be difficult
to hold together
// 232β
καὶ μὲν δὴ εἴ σοι δέος παρέστηκεν
ἡγουμένῳ χαλεπὸν εἶναι φιλίαν συμμένειν
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
but they dont even try to accuse
non-lovers (eran)
for communing together (sun-ousia)
knowing (oida) that its necessary (anagkaios)
to dialogue (dia-legein) with them
through friendship (philia)
or some other pleasure
// 232β
τοὺς δὲ μὴ ἐρῶντας οὐδ᾽ αἰτιᾶσθαι διὰ τὴν συνουσίαν ἐπιχειροῦσιν
εἰδότες ὅτι ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἢ διὰ φιλίαν τῳ διαλέγεσθαι ἢ δι᾽ ἄλλην τινὰ ἡδονήν
//
or love
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
and so whenever fae behold (horaein) them
dialoguing (dia-legein) with one another
fae suppose them to be
together-being-in-desire
(epithumia sun-eimi)
that has either come to be (gignomai)
or that they are about to do (mellein)
ὥστε ὅταν ὀφθῶσι διαλεγόμενοι ἀλλήλοις
τότε αὐτοὺς οἴονται ἢ γεγενημένης ἢ μελλούσης ἔσεσθαι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας συνεῖναι
//
maybe sex
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
furthermore of necessity (anagke)
many hear tell of
and see
the lovers (eran)
following the loved ones
and making (poieein) this
their work (ergon)
// 232α
ἔτι δὲ τοὺς μὲν ἐρῶντας πολλοὺς ἀνάγκη πυθέσθαι καὶ ἰδεῖν ἀκολουθοῦντας τοῖς ἐρωμένοις καὶ ἔργον τοῦτο ποιουμένους
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
(the best)
instead of reputation (doxa)
from humans
(go with)
// 232α
(τὸ βέλτιστον) ἀντὶ τῆς δόξης τῆς παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων (αἱρεῖσθαι)
//
must not be stopped
i am what
too empty
too full
too sleepy
too Soren (???)
but otherwise
im your man
//
go easy on the Muslims in your life
its the last week of Ramadan
and harder than they make it look
🌘