I Beg Leave Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ

‘Goddess of songs, teach me the story of a hero'
Homer, Odyssey.

Lo! I beg leave.
For I have become familiar with the things;
The strident fortune is off my shoulder,
My spoils gild, what hath been the gain?
Of virtue, hath anyone lost.
My tongue refuse, my thought bent,
For in after-times, what shall be said.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
May 27,2014.

Greek statue Apoxyomenos, oil painting by Mathew Bates @ absolutearts.com