Poetry Month- To Aster

[mysid]

Centuries ago, when I was in high school, our English lit text contained the poem "To Stella", written by Plato and translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It wasn't until I read Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine that I discovered "Stella" was actually "Aster" and a boy. Shelley's editors feminized the boy's name; both "Aster" and "Stella" mean "star". (Gee, I wonder why they did that?)


The Aster Epigrams
(By Plato; translation by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

To Aster I

Sweet Child, thou star of love and beauty bright,
Alone thou lookest on the midnight skies;
Oh! That my spirit were yon Heaven of light
To gaze upon thee with a thousand eyes.


To Aster II

Thou wert the morning star among the living,
Ere thy fair light had fled; –
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving
New splendour to the dead.