The latest issue of The Utopian is now online, featuring essays by Michel Houellebecq, Michael Goldstein, Damon Linker, and Alexander Lee, an interview with Charles Taylor, and new translations of poems by Heinrich Heine and Theognis, the latter (translated by David Hayes) excerpted below.

Those wings of yours have been my gift to you:
Take them and fly from party to party. Land

Upon the lips of all the beauties and listen.
The song they sing will be the song of you,

Kurnus. I’m sad to say that death is just
Around the corner. Human beings end

As groaning ghosts in Hades — so will you.
But “Kurnus” will be famous on the surface.

Your evening escorts will be Muses, Muses
Dressed like Aphrodite, Goddess of Desire:

All of Greece will be your oyster,
Not just now, but years and years to come —

For as long as life is on this planet,
As long as poems speak to life.

But I get almost no respect from you.
You trick me with words

Like I was a little boy.

For the complete contents, click here.

Tags: Charles Taylor, poetry, The Utopian, Theognis

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