Detested by both men and gods, <br />like nobles who have bitterly decayed, <br />the Verlaines wither; wealth remains <br />to them, of rich and silvery rhyme. <br />With 'Les Chatiments' the Hugos are intoxicated <br />by their terrible Olympian revenge. <br />But I shall write a sorrowful <br />ballade to the forgotten poets. <br /> <br />Though the Poes have lived in misery, <br />and though the Baudelaires have suffered living deaths, <br />they ve all been granted Immortality. <br />Yet no-one now remembers, <br />and the deepest darkness has completely buried, <br />every poetaster who produced limp poetry. <br />But I make as an offering this reverent <br />ballade to the forgotten poets. <br /> <br />The world's disdain is heaped on them, <br />but they pass by, unyielding, pallid, <br />sacrifices to the tragic fraud that <br />out there somewhere Glory waits for them, <br />that wise and merry virgin. <br />But knowing that they re all due for oblivion, <br />I weep nostalgically this sorrowful <br />ballade to the forgotten poets. <br /> <br />And off in some far future epoch: <br />'What forgotten poet' I should like it to be asked <br />'has written such a beggarly <br />ballade to the forgotten poets?'<br /><br />Kostas Karyotakis<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ballade-to-the-forgotten-poets-of-the-ages/
