Lost Consolation Poem by Sadiqullah Khan
Lost Consolation
While your candle burns
On the tomb’s epitaph
Matron of the Republic,
The Palla -, green, yellow
And red strings, waist high.
An open dome, an earth’s
Converse. Since I go in
The heart’s tombs, in song.
On plane arable surface,
Mine is a lost consolation.
-On reading the letter of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the most eminent lawyer of the late Republic, to Marcus Cicero on the death of his daughter Tullia Ciceronis (79 BC – 45 BC) .
Sadiqullah Khan
Peshawar
May 10,2014.
Cicero. (106 B.C.–43 B.C.) . Letters.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
XXVII. Servius Sulpicius to Cicero (At Astura)
Athens (March)
WHEN I received the news of your daughter Tullia’s death, I was indeed as much grieved and distressed as I was bound to be, and looked upon it as a calamity in which I shared. For, if I had been at home, I should not have failed to be at your side, and should have made my sorrow plain to you face to face. That kind of consolation involves much distress and pain, because the relations and friends, whose part it is to offer it, are themselves overcome by an equal sorrow. They cannot attempt it without many tears, so that they seem to require consolation themselves rather than to be able to afford it to others. Still I have decided to set down briefly for your benefit such thoughts as have occurred to my mind, not because I suppose them to be unknown to you, but because your sorrow may perhaps hinder you from being so keenly alive to them. 1
Why is it that a private grief should agitate you so deeply? Think how fortune has hitherto dealt with us. Reflect that we have had snatched from us what ought to be no less dear to human beings than their children—country, honour, rank, every political distinction. What additional wound to your feelings could be inflicted by this particular loss? Or where is the heart that should not by this time have lost all sensibility and learned to regard everything else as of minor importance? Is it on her account, pray, that you sorrow? How many times have you recurred to the thought—and I have often been struck with the same idea—that in times like these theirs is far from being the worst fate to whom it has been granted to exchange life for a painless death? Now what was there at such an epoch that could greatly tempt her to live? What scope, what hope, what heart’s solace? That she might spend her life with some young and distinguished husband? How impossible for a man of your rank to select from the present generation of young men a son-in-law, to whose honour you might think yourself safe in trusting your child! Was it that she might bear children to cheer her with the sight of their vigorous youth? who might by their own character maintain the position handed down to them by their parent, might be expected to stand for the offices in their order, might exercise their freedom in supporting their friends? What single one of these prospects has not been taken away before it was given? But, it will be said, after all it is an evil to lose one’s children. Yes, it is: only it is a worse one to endure and submit to the present state of things. 2
I wish to mention to you a circumstance which gave me no common consolation, on the chance of its also proving capable of diminishing your sorrow. On my voyage from Asia, as I was sailing from Ægina towards Megara, I began to survey the localities that were on every side of me. Behind me was Ægina, in front Megara, on my right Piræus, on my left Corinth: towns which at one time were most flourishing, but now lay before my eyes in ruin and decay. I began to reflect to myself thus: “Hah! do we mannikins feel rebellious if one of us perishes or is killed—we whose life ought to be still shorter—when the corpses of so many towns lie in helpless ruin? Will you please, Servius, restrain yourself and recollect that you are born a mortal man? ” Believe me, I was no little strengthened by that reflexion. Now take the trouble, if you agree with me, to put this thought before your eyes. Not long ago all those most illustrious men perished at one blow: the empire of the Roman people suffered that huge loss: all the provinces were shaken to their foundations. If you have become the poorer by the frail spirit of one poor girl, are you agitated thus violently? If she had not died now, she would yet have had to die a few years hence, for she was mortal born. You, too, withdraw soul and thought from such things, and rather remember those which become the part you have played in life: that she lived as long as life had anything to give her; that her life outlasted that of the Republic; that she lived to see you—her own father—prætor, consul, and augur; that she married young men of the highest rank; that she had enjoyed nearly every possible blessing; that, when the Republic fell, she departed from life. What fault have you or she to find with fortune on this score? In fine, do not forget that you are Cicero, and a man accustomed to instruct and advise others; and do not imitate bad physicians, who in the diseases of others profess to understand the art of healing, but are unable to prescribe for themselves. Rather suggest to yourself and bring home to your own mind the very maxims which you are accustomed to impress upon others. There is no sorrow beyond the power of time at length to diminish and soften: it is a reflexion on you that you should wait for this period, and not rather anticipate that result by the aid of your wisdom. But if there is any consciousness still existing in the world below, such was her love for you and her dutiful affection for all her family, that she certainly does not wish you to act as you are acting. Grant this to her—your lost one! Grant it to your friends and comrades who mourn with you in your sorrow! Grant it to your country, that if the need arises she may have the use of your services and advice. 3
Finally—since we are reduced by fortune to the necessity of taking precautions on this point also—do not allow anyone to think that you are not mourning so much for your daughter as for the state of public affairs and the victory of others. I am ashamed to say any more to you on this subject, lest I should appear to distrust your wisdom. Therefore I will only make one suggestion before bringing my letter to an end. We have seen you on many occasions bear good fortune with a noble dignity which greatly enhanced your fame: now is the time for you to convince us that you are able to bear bad fortune equally well, and that it does not appear to you to be a heavier burden than you ought to think it. I would not have this be the only one of all the virtues that you do not possess. 4
As far as I am concerned, when I learn that your mind is more composed, I will write you an account of what is going on here, and of the condition of the province. Good-bye.
@ Bartelby.com
The Convert after a painting by G. R. C. Boulanger @ Guntenberg Books
The poem was conceived after reading about Tullia in Cicero’s letters but the main inspiration had been the death of my elder daughter at a very young age.
1. Tullia Ciceronis, also Tulliola (as affectionately known to her father) (5 August 79 BC or 78 BC – February 45 BC) was the only daughter and first child to Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero from his first marriage to Terentia. Her younger brother was Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor (born 65 BC) , a consul of 30 BC.
2. In the fifteenth century, a tomb was found in Rome which was identified as Tullia’s burial place. Among other things found in the tomb was a perpetual lamp which was supposedly still burning after more than 15 centuries.[1][2] The 17th-century English poet and preacher John Donne alludes to this legend in the eleventh stanza ('The Good-Night') of his 'Epithalamion,1613. Decemb.26' for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset to Frances Howard:
Now, as in Tullias tombe, one lamp burnt cleare,
Unchang'd for fifteene hundred yeare,
May these love-lamps we here enshrine,
In warmth, light, lasting, equall the divine... (Wikipedia)
3. Matron of the Republic: Groups of matrons were involved in political and religious action in the earliest events of Roman history. (This may be true or allegorical)
4. The Palla: Palla is a traditional ancient Roman mantle worn by women, fastened by brooches. It was similar to the pallium that a man would wear. The shape was rectangular instead of semi-circular as with the traditional toga. The Palla was similar to a shawl that a woman of today would wear. The palla would come in many colors some including blues, greens, and yellows.
The palla is a single piece of material draped over the shoulders and around the body or over the head as well. The palla is worn over a stola, which is a floor-length dress with straps (or sometimes, long sleeves) that is worn over a tunic.
5. Jhang District is home to the tomb of the heroine of a famous love story, Heer Ranjha. Heer's tomb lies just north of Jhang on the way to Faisalabad. An annual fair is held at her tomb. The tomb is open from above.
6. Mine is a lost consolation: an imaginary dialogue of Heer and Tullia, where Heer lies in the tomb of hearts and there is no stately consolation for her. The first stanza and the second stanza are juxtaposed.
7. Both the stanzas are complementing in essence, but have a different ‘atmospheres to it’
8. Servius Sulpicius Rufus (ca.106 BC – 43 BC) , surnamed Lemonia from the tribe to which he belonged, was a Roman orator and jurist.He studied rhetoric with Cicero, and accompanied him to Rhodes in 78 BC. Finding that he would never be able to rival his teacher he gave up rhetoric for law.[1] Cicero on the other hand considered Servius Sulpicius Rufus as his superior in matters pertaining to the law.[2] In 63 BC he was a candidate for the consulship, but was defeated by Lucius Licinius Murena, whom he subsequently accused of bribery. In 52 BC he successfully stood election to be consul in 51 BC. In the Civil War, after considerable hesitation, he threw in his lot with Caesar. It was reported that Rufus dined with Caesar, Sallust, Hirtius, Balbus and Oppius on the night after his famous crossing over the Rubicon river into Italy January 10.[3] Caesar made him proconsul of Achaea in 46 BC. He died in 43 BC while on a mission from the senate to Marcus Antonius at Mutina. He was accorded a public funeral, and a statue was erected to his memory in front of the Rostra.
Two excellent specimens of Sulpicius's style are preserved in Cicero's letters.[4] One of these is a letter of condolence to Cicero after the death of his daughter, Tullia. It is a letter that posterity has much admired, full of subtle, melancholy reflection on the transiency of all things. Byron has quoted this letter in his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.[5] Quintilian[6]speaks of three orations by Sulpicius as still in existence; one of these was the speech against Murena, another Pro or Contra Aufidium, of whom nothing is known. Wikipedia
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 11:02:34 PM # 1.0.0.1119
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