3. Absolute Power

I pleased myself with stone and old masonry
in the foundation of the city,
found statues of myself in past ages
subsiding under the common land.

Were my faces smashed toppling into rock
or by sledgehammers in full view of the press?
Broken bulbs around my effigies
have pushed their roots into my eyes and mouth.

Above air and rock, flesh and breath
the story changed with every teller.
All say I am broken, over and over again
for their own sake, for the sake of pleasing.

1. Imperium

A bene placito
Ab urbe condita
Absente reo
Res publica

Quo animo?
In flagrante delicto
Per angusta in augusta
Hoc erat in votis

Esse quam videri
Esse est percipi
Frangar non flectar
Gratia placenti

*****

2. Absolute Power

At one's pleasure
from the foundation of the city
in absence of the defendent
the public thing

With what spirit?
In the very act of committing an offence
through difficulties to great things
this was among my prayers

To be, rather than to seem
being is perception
I am broken, I am not deflected
for the sake of pleasing


(nota bene: spirit can also be translated as intent)