Five Duban Songs: Eros Sanctified
Music of Constantine Caravassilis (2018)
Poems, Jeffrey Duban
The poems below appear in Jeffrey M. Duban, The Shipwreck Sea: Love Poems and Essays in a Classical Mode (Clairview Books, 2019).
Their inspirations derive from:
(1) the Greek Anthology, a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. The two manuscripts containing these poems date to the 10th and 14th centuries AD; and
(2) Pierre Louÿs’ Les Chansons de Bilitis (The Songs of Bilitis) (1894), a supreme fin de siècle gender hoax. This work of faux prose-poem translations—the originals ascribed to one Bilitis, a courtesan contemporary with Sappho—caused a sensation persisting long after the hoax was revealed. The work was actually Louÿs’ own, “the uniquely potent brew of [his] recondite classicism, febrile imagination, and decadent sensitivity.” The work bespoke the female heart: “[Bilitis] knows herself to be at once Sappho and more than Sappho. One can at least know Bilitis, whereas Sappho will remain ever at a distance.” Readers were none the wiser for the work’s male inspiration, and no less approving after it was known.
§1
Beneath a gazing gossamer,
this body sunned and brown,
with puberty begins to stir
amid a nascent down.
Oh, may it to full flower come
before the sun is set,
Oh, how the bud grows tiresome
were better to forget.
§2
Not in gold admired
nor silk to sight displayed,
my greeting stands attired
in nature’s kiss conveyed.
My hair hangs fallen free,
my lips wear dawn’s first gaze,
find upward from my knee
pasturage where to graze.
Explore me north and south,
feast fully on my breast,
fasten me to your mouth
north, south, east, and west.
§3
When I kiss doting Daphnis, fair,
my soul strides to my lips;
constrained the daring spirit there
yet past the gateway slips.
§4
How clearly does the cup delight,
fast coupled to the lips
of Lalagē, delicious sprite,
whose mouth the droplet drips.
Blessed cup! Were lips of hers
fast-bound to lips my very own,
I would her soul entire draw down,
throughout my being sown.
§5
Unclothed athwart a limb,
bark moistened by the rain,
I grip the bough within
thighs darkened by the stain.
The bough is firmly hewn,
where strain my slender hips,
within do we commune
where open lie my lips.
World Premiere: Tallinn, Estonia, May 19, 2018
Composer, Constantine Caravassilis
Poetry, Jeffrey Duban
Mezzo-Soprano, Ariana Chris
Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (augmented)
Conductor, Kaisa Roose
Venue, House of the Blackheads (15 century)
See further The Shipwreck Sea, p. xxii (last paragraph) for context
U.S. Premiere: New York City, January 19, 2019
Composer, Constantine Caravassilis
Poetry, Jeffrey M. Duban
Mezzo-Soprano, Melissa Serluco
Piano, Jean-Paul Bjorlin piano
(playing composer's transcription of orchestral score)
Venue, Jeffrey Duban and Jayne Connell salon recital series