WEBVTT

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I love this translator and
poet named Guy Davenport,

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who translates a lot of Greek.

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And he did this
fantastic translation

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of the Greek warrior
poet, Archilochos,

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who served in the
Greek army but was also

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a devout critic of
the Greek government.

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Which blew my mind, because
it couldn't exist today

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in that same way.

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So I tried to sort of adapt
Archilochos into this poem.

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"Archilochos."

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"There is a sergeant
who bends the notes

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to his life on a kettle drum.

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What he calls love,
I call kriegspiel.

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Gah.

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I've tasted his
kind of workmanship

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with the klaxons, his
showmanship under klieg lights.

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His name should be spelled
like a criminal broke

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through the wall of it.

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A name like Sergeant Petraeus.

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Literally, a country that can't
quit pissing out kidney stones.

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But don't you wish his
Grossmutter was possessed

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of the balls to name
him something like,

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here come the lions?

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And she'd call out his name like
his name is an x-rated splatter

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film, and she'd drip-paint his
name on the terra incognita.

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Wherever her grandson's
pink flag wasn't staked,

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staked on his map of
the world circa 1510.

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Meanwhile, I work eight jobs.

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Gah.

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I have no leave, zero maternity.

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It's with poetry I
bring down the state.

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It's me, not him,
nor him, nor her,

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nor him, who will make this
country famous by dying here.

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With my weapon, I
breaded my family.

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Blotto I slept with my weapon.

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Weapon I out-berserked
the berserkers with.

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Gah.

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I knelt inside your
war and I chugged.

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I chugged.

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But I won't tar the
Republic's children.

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Not for all the unspent
drachma in their trust funds.

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Gah.

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I won't confetti their graves.

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Not when their children tell
me their unborn head lice,

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their forthcoming
handfuls of dandruff,

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are worth more than my spear.

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Republicans are liberals
too, I'm afraid.

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And there's no such
thing as a trust fund

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kid on the battlefield.

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All this country has
left in common with me.

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This jawbone of an ass.

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Gah.

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This country that lived
how I lived, and it'll

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die how I'll die, with
my tongue in your mouth

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like a buck in the swear jar.

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And yes, I've heard them calling
me names like ancient latrine.

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I'm full of the kind of
mealy, malnourished shit they

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say that's unfit for
labor, unless labor

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means landing your name on
the government watch list.

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But pretty soon, forget warrior.

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They'll have to start digging
me up and calling me sergeant.

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And dollar after dollar after
dollar will you listen to me

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cuss."

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