Oh, Sparta -- If Only You Could Have Known

"Hear your fate, O high-dwellers of the airy, wide open Spaces and fertile plain, your rugged and enclosed Lands, Sparta, untouched by that of hard-grinding war". Thus, the fraught Oracle of Delphi had so spoken. Now only I alone am left to ponder on all that was before... And, which, wrongly, ignorant peoples should all suppose. But Sparta should lose in victory -- whilst noble Athens Would become more wondrous than any could ever Have imagined! And although I am of Sparta...I think of her As home. For I have hunted in the sprawling woodlands Of Phelloe, dallied with the plodding tortoise in coy Arcadia; Alalcomenae's giant oaks offering shelter from inclement weather. I gave up tears when listening to ancient, groaning pines On the sandy coast of Elis, marveled at white Blackbirds In Cyllene, ate the dates of Aulis, tasted olive oils From Tithorea; when sat at the table of the Gods dined Upon wild strawberries from Helicon! The flashing roils Of Saronic dolphins. The Six Caverns that none dares disturb. Alas, in my distress I am more troubled than Menelaus; And have known a hundred-fold more greater a jealous pride... All his murderous heartaches. Same, sudden, gut-wrenching blow At first encounter; this which serves no man any good cause... Apart to live in melancholy. Skin as perfect as untouched snow. A wilful deceit that can hide behind an unemotive woman's eyes. Forgive me, Pausanias -- there is beautiful poetry in your words my friend!!