ULYSSES

Hello, Philoctetes! In the final analysis, there aren't that many ways out... Let's see. Have you heard the weather forecast? There's rain at the fourth degree and snow at the sixth. To the north - there too many dolphins. Philoctetes? All right. Let's say he doesn't hear us! Let's blow up his ass! Everybody keep their eyes on the map! Sink his cutters at the front. And attack in the rear at the northern quay. Then our divers will go into the waters of the bay. Go!

SOLDIER 1

Be careful about the shallows!

SOLDIER 2

I missed.

ULYSSES

Try again!

SOLDIER 1

A break-through the rear! We'll shell!

SOLDIER 2

Wo-o-ow!

SOLDIER 1

Ulysses...Ulysses... We scorched them.

SOLDIER 2

That's the end of Lemnos. Back to Troy.

SOLDIER 1

Ulysses...it's destroyed. Ulysses...

SOLDIER 2

The whole atoll is like fried eggs.

SOLDIER 1

Ulysses...Philoctetes is destroyed. Ulysses? There's no answer. We've lost the connection.

SOLDIER 2

Ulysses! They aren't on the radar either! Ulysses!

ULYSSES

Try again!

Atropos: A dream

A dream

Lachesis A dream

Atropos: is not

Clotho: is not

Lachesis is not

Atropos: that which

Clotho: which

Lachesis: which

Atropos: you do not know and do not ask about:

Where?

Death

Atropos: because life

will not be

Clotho: will not be

Lachesis: will not be -

Atropos: life does not remember that it has been.

Where

Clotho: where

Lachesis: where

Atropos: you do not know,

but you know

that you are.

Sleeps

Clotho: sleeps

Lachesis: sleeps

Atropos: he who is you.

A dream

Clotho: a dream

Lachesis: a dream

Atropos: when the inside is out..

And I

do not know

why

tears

Clotho: tears

Lachesis: tears

Atropos: I shed

Lachesis: for him

Clotho: for you

who are not.

Atropos: A dream

Clotho: a dream

Lachesis: a dream

Atropos: is not

Clotho: is not

Lachesis: is not

Atropos: that which

Clotho: which

Lachesis: which

Atropos: you do not know and ask about:

Where?

Death

Clotho: death

Lachesis: death

Atropos: because life will not be

Clotho: will not be

Lachesis: will not be -

Atropos: life does not remember that it has been.

Where

Clotho: where

Lachesis: where

Atropos: you do not know that,

but you know that you are.

Sleeps

Clotho: sleeps

Lachesis: sleeps

Atropos: he who is you.

Dream

Clotho: dream

Lachesis dream

Atropos: when the inside is out.

And I do not know

why

tears

Clotho: tears

Lachesis tears

Atropos: I shed

Lachesis: for him

Clotho: for you

who are not.

Atropos: A dream

Clotho: a dream

Lachesis: a dream

Atropos:

A dream...

and my Ulysses

is deceived by another who is more his Ulysses

because the wrathful Achilles

aroused the wrath of another more wrathful Achilles.

Lachesis:

What is Ulysses?

A person who has erased his own personality,

a person inflected with another person.

That is all and what he was not.

The creature we are now is one -

I know everything and you know nothing;

you chose the direction and I keep quiet.

Lachesis:

I listen through the wall

of your breastbone,

sticking close to your armour,

and hear the beating of you heart.

I listen to the beating of my heart.

Call me now Future,

which will decide when to call you Past.

And you will hear my voice again

together with the voice of the surf

where bloody waves

break against the gates of Troy.

Destiny is cruel

and it cannot be changed.

Clotho:

Blood is the meaning of wounds,

and pain is nothing but a former shadow

which the sun has thrown away

in the deathless sultriness of dead people.

And I am neither happy nor unhappy,

foreseeing happiness,

and foretasting sorrow.

Oh, this noise, I hear the groans of Troy from here!

Oh, this noise, I hear the groans of Troy from here!

Oh, this noise I hear the groans of Troy from here!

(The broadcasting of non-military radio stations is heard.)

" And now some advertisements. The offer of a Travel Agency for a sea vacation to Greece"

ANANKE

Oh, how beautiful is Hellas!

The outspread fingers of the hand

Cyclades,

Sporades

the Dodecanese.

Peloponnesus

Thessaly

Epirus

on the mounts of the hand.

I put a ring on her finger,

and it is like a loving serpent

because it is the ring of war.

Everywhere -

on land,

in the air

and on the water,

in omens,

in portents

an in the dreams of children -

is heard the ringing sound of metal hitting metal.

The sword would give everything for a drop of blood!

( Commands and the beating of drums are heard.)

Dear cadets! Please, greet the honourable guest of the Naval Academy.

The topic of his lecture is: "The Tactics at Lemnos. Actions in the rear. Strategy of landing. The Bridgehead."

ULYSSES:

Let's look at this diagram....

Necrogen: The coast is in front of us!

Euriloch: The island is close!

Terateus: Let those who sleep go on sleeping!

Perimeds: The oarsmen - go on rowing!

Chorus: Go on rowing!

Tarateus: What is going to happen is presaged

by signs in the sky

Perimedes: by movements in the earth

Euriloch: by the birth of a child a woman gives

Necrogenes: by the dead with their decay

Chorus: by those half-alive with their deadliness.

Death!

Euriloch: Do not tie the rope onto islands of salt!

Necrogen: Work the oars with all your might!

Terateu: Spread all the sails!

Perimedes: But do not stop at an island of salt!

Salt is the captive of water.

Necrogen: Here it smells of decay!

Coryphaeus: Keep quiet!

Just row!

The sleeping go on sleeping after the long journey.

They come from Troy!

This one and that one too!

Necrogen: Let us row,

and bend low

as low as we can!

Euriloch: We are nothing but oars,

beating the water.

Perimedes: Ours is the journey,

but not the island!

Euriloch: There are two kings!

Each one with a heart.

But even If the heart

of a king

stops beating,

or blood stains the hands of a king,

ours will be only the water.

Perimedes: We will shed the blood of

the waves.

Euriloch and Perimedes: We are only the oarsmen!

Necrogen: The water smells of decay!

Terateus: Of the smell of death!

Coryphaeus: I shall cut off the nose of each one,

so that you would not be able to smell!

Go on rowing!

And keep your fears to yourselves!

We are taking to the land

two man from Troy.

This one and that one too.

Chorus: Destiny will determine the fate of two kings.

No one else

but their legs

will forge on the land

the sharp edge of the road

which will take them back

or will never take them back.

Euriloch: Here I sign

with the oar on the sea -

Euriloch and Perimedes: there!

Tarateus and Necrogen: And so do we!

Coryphaeus: Keep rowing!

Let he who sleeps go on sleeping!

Chorus: We are a naval force,

keeping the sea beneath us awake

and guarding over the sleep of two kings.

Coryphaeus: Hey, island,

we are bringing to you two kings

all the way from Troy!

All: This one

and that one too!

(A telephone conversation, atmospherics... a counter-intelligence officer to his boss.)

The Officer: Right!

Archive and naval Counter-intelligence.

Archive and code name: Philoctetes

- naval officer

• a military cross - 1978, 1980 and 1986.

The Boss:

Yes!

The Officer:

- commander of a squad - 1988.

Badly wounded on June 12, 1978. His leg was operated on.

First offence, September 14, 1988. He id not report to Headquarters for a routine check up.

The Boss:

Yes!

The Officer:

September 21 - an action in the Pacific under the code name of "TROY". He crossed the demarcation line against the orders of the his superiors.

The Boss:

Yes!

The Officer:

October and November 1988 - he was traced on the atoll with the code name LEMNOS

ULYSSES - from the Medical Bulletin:

Expertise signed by the Chief Physician of the Fleet.

"The case should be officially investigated."

Archive and code name - ULYSSES

"...had psychological problems as a cadet. Having this information in his dossier, I think a serious mistake has been made. A second expertise was necessary. They didn't check him up to establish whether he was capable of taking adequate decisions under conditions of stress."

The Boss:

Further on!...

The Officer:

Analysis of officer X., a staff psychologist.

October 14, 1988 - 11 members of the squad had hallucinations after landing on the LEMNOS atoll.

October 15, 1988 - a junior officer with the code name of Neoptolemus. Permanent nervous disorder. He guarded the body of the general who had deserted after the campaign.. Extract from a record from the tapped conversation is attached: /ULYSSES voice is heard/ "...I shall poison the water of the bay. They're in the water. They're in the water."

The team of doctors are firmly convinced that this is hallucinations. The general, a junior officer and eleven marines from the punitive detachment were affected. The hallucinations are the result of nervous strain during landing. End.

CHIMERA

I am the sea Ocean.

I am the raven,

in whose eye

looks

the victory you missed.

I see the ships.

I see your sails.

I see your oars.

I see the pain in the hands of the oarsmen.

I see the sound of the pulleys and the ropes.

Your end

is now beginning.

Ulysses, play for a little while

with your dreams.

We will soon play with nightmares

but then you will be awake.

Am I Medusa

or Chimera?

Have you not ever lain

under the branches

of my horror?

Who needs you,

and who does not

need you?

But let me

tell your future -

what you have

is all that is left

to you.

Oh, how I hate to tell you lies!

Why should I not

wake you up right away

and scream in your face

all the truths!

Why should I

not speak with all my voices?

With the voices of all the Sirens,

with the voices of Scilla and Charybdis,

with the voice of the falling tears

of Calypso,

with the appealing voice of Penelope.

I will give the water - all the water

in their hands,

in their hands:

they break their nails

and each one of them is on her coast,

and each one of them is with her horror,

and each one of them dips her hands in the murky surf,

taking out empty shells,

and drinking your traces

on the other side of the sea.

Their hope

no longer bites

the worm

of the fear of which they do not want to hear -

that you will not be

with Scilla,

with Calypso

with Charybdis,

or your numerous Penelopes.

The mares break your ankles

on the stony coast.

I am sick and tired of their "Come!"

So, it is better for you to go away.

Now you'll see, Ulysses,

now you'll see! The egg of your death

is already falling,

it has been dropped from high above -

and it will fall in your eye.

The end of hopes and crying comes

and decay begins.

PENELOPE

This is the end of shirts and yarns,

there comes a wake and a grave.

SCILLA

Deadly thin become the eyebrows

there are no irises no sight

CHARYBDIS

Dead fish float in the nets

in the deadly ground swell.

PENELOPE

The end of secrets and of schemes has come,

no more waiting- doubts.

CHARYBDIS

You will wake up

in the eye of the storm

every time SCILLA

with the voice You wake up again!

of a dying sailor.

CHARYBDIS

It is dark again!

LIGEIA

My eyes I strain,

but I see no coast!

LEUCOSIA

There is no coast!

PENELOPE

There is no coast!

PARTHENOPE

There is no coast

They are impatiently CHARYBDIS

waiting for you, At Charybdis'!

Telemacus dreams of you, PENELOPE

Ithaca is now so close. In the milk of my breasts.

PENELOPE

The judge of your lies. The favorite of your eyes.

The one who lives in sorrow

has tied her vigilant eyes -

in the eye of the night and the storm,

away from home,

you will turn into foam.

And you were so close to the end

of the ocean where the grass begins.

The people on this island

hold you dear, PENELOPE

but they will never see you again. And you will never see them again.

You can reach Ithaca

if you go into the waters

of the Atlantis.

Remember you will see me PENELOPE

on the coast. You will see me on the coast.

Speed

slows down time.

All parts of the world

dear to us

become distant.

A shadow falls over the ship,

the water beneath the oars

grows dark.

We forget the place,

we forget the name,

we forget our spite,

fed up by the udders

of thousands hanging moons.

I have forgiven you

everything.

Will you forgive yourself

the fact that you sneaked up to me,

almost half asleep,

choosing my warmth,

when it was winter in the sea -

I was

closest to you,

the only summer.

Have you forgiven yourself?

Have you hung up to dry,

the clothes of Ithaca,

washed clean?

Have you offered

a purifying sacrifice

to memory?

The fly-death

now buzzes not so loud

in the bell

of your ear.

Did you wash the girdle,

did you rub off with salt

the taste of my scented oil?

Having lost all your shields,

you crawled to my island,

and lay in my shell.

Keeping awake

when you slept,

bathed in love.

That is all.

The whole of the Aegean sea

learned about it,

and the sea became feminine.

I was

what

I was.

And I stopped

at the horizon

when Ulysses sailed away.

I uttered abuses

through the trumpets of the seasons,

and cursed

all gods.

I brought down

the water

of a cloud

and washed

my throat,

my stomach

and my thighs.

It has long been the last day.

Your years with Penelope were seven.

Your years with Calypso were seven.

With Medusa - the pain of love squeezed dry.

The Sirens of Scilla and Charybdis -

cut up in morsels for the dish

of your tender lips,

your white teeth,

and your palate.

Damn you, Ulysses!

Do not fall asleep -

when in the short afternoon

you hang your head,

you will see me,

I am waiting;

I am much more than all the other sirens,

I am longer than Scilla and Charybdis,

only Troy is longer,

but I was yours

while Troy was never yours.

Ananke and the three Moirai:

Come to the dark side!

Come to the dark side!

It is not nighttime!

It is not daytime!

It is not a dream!

The old wound opens death.

Now!

Let a Greek meet a Greek.

Will the Greeks embrace the Greek?

No!

Let the sword pick the flowers of blood!

Stains...

More stains....

Three dark suns.

The voice of night silences the earth.

Rust.

There is no time tomorrow.

There is no where tomorrow.

Everything will stop tomorrow.

And so...

Atropos: Let us spin!

Clotho: Let us weave!

Lachesis: Let us knit!

Ananke: Let us plough

in the field of life

the furrow of death.

Atropos: Now!

Lachesis: Time has stopped.

Clotho: Will the time of war stop?

Ananke: No! Let the ox plough

the furrow of death.

Atropos: One,

Lachesis: and one more,

Clotho: and yet one more!

Atropos: Three

Lachesis: threads,

Clotho: destinies!

Ànanke: Let us tie them together!

The three Moirai: Let them be sisters!

Ananke: Three - one over the other,

bow-strings of death.

Troy is the throne of the world today,

because it is the town of war

Olympus is deserted,

the gods are in Troy

conducting the war.

And so...

Atropos: This island is mine!

Lachesis: This island is mine!

Clotho: This island is mine!

Ananke: Joy, victory and defeat.

Troy in ruins!

Lemnos in ruins!

Lachesis: Sciros in ruins!

Clotho: Melos in ruins!

Atropos: Ithaca in ruins!

The three Moirai: The thread is ready,

the thread is waiting!

Ananke: Three bodies,

ready to capture,

the three of them captive of the thread.

Atropos: A skillful serpent - a string of the bow.

A ball of lies!

Ananke: Tie up the ball!

Atropos: A thread of blood!

Will entwine Ulysses!

Lachesis: Down!

So young!

Beardless!

Woven out of down,

a giant with milk-teeth!

Neoptholomus cord

which has had not enough

of blood.

Neoptholumus,

the new time has come!

Throw away the diapers!

We are weaving clothes for a man.

Neoptholumus!

Clotho: Dumb and pale,

hollow with pus,

crippled,

old, rusty,

deaf and wild,

salted in salt,

dry, crooked and bitter,

already dead,

yet still very bad

and that is why still alive,

deaf and wild,

dumb and pale

Philoctetes.

(A deserted beach. A loudspeaker. A news item.)

According to data from the Information Agency of the Marine Armed Forces during a routine military exercise in the Pacific Ocean, near the atoll code-named LEMNOS, in a training exercise simulating actions of surpressing mutiny, 32 military men including the commanding officer of the United forces, have died in a misfortunate accident. A committee has been elected to investigate the causes of the incident. Precautionary measures have been taken. The Training Operations Head-quarters, 'TROY', have authorized The Marine Information Agency to make the following announcement: Apart from the above mentioned misfortunate accident in the region of the atoll there are no other incidents. Rumors of a mutiny during the military exercises as well as those of cases of desertion of members of the special branches are pure fabrications.

CORYPHAEUS: The ship

lay it upside down!

Tar

the keel!

Fix

the mast!

PERIMEDES: Poor thing -

will carry yet one more!

NECROGENES: Where?

There is no place

for a third king!

CORYPHAEUS: Hush! Sew the sails!

EURILOCH: Hideous land!

A dead shore!

PERIMEDES: Shall we go?

Let them stay.

They will find the short way

without ourr help.

I think I would like tomorrow to be

as alive as I am today.

CORYPHAEUS: Keep quiet!

Who do you think

you are to row

in such thoughts

and row against the Monarch's flow!

A wise boatsman?

PERIMEDES: Sailor, do not blame

fate in future -

remember Phyloctetes!

A king with two servants - two hands,

one fine leg,

one with a poisoned arrow

in it.

EURILOCH: Thersitis!

He had to eat dust

they said he must!

PERIMEDES: He had to drink mud.

EURILOCH: With new illnesses

he cured his old wounds,

On his skin there were marks

of rusty chains.

PERIMEDES: With chains of shame

he was seen by all living things.

EURILOCH: And all know that his kind

live as a shade upon a grave.

PERIMEDES: Dead flesh he eats,

when his arrow hits a vulture.

EURILOCH & PERIMEDES: The man is a dog!

EURILOCH: Sailor, he -

a fish in an ocean of pus

may weep!

But you - sing in a voice that is deep!

NECROGENES: ULYSSES!

TERATHEUS: ULYSSES is returning!

Returning home.

Or perhaps not?

What is he doing?

NECROGENES: He's chewing the air!

TERATHEUS: Talking maybe?

Maybe praying?

NECROGENES: Praying to our gods,

or to some new god?

TERATHEUS: For some new knowledge?

Sly fox!

NECROGENES: Hey, ULYSSES,

make a sacrifice -

sacrifice a lie for us.

CORYPHAEUS: Quiet!

Whoever speaks too much

will lose his tongue,

you ants!

Work!

Fasten the ropes!

Keep tight the sails!

Dry the planks!

Take out the oars!

Raise the prow!

Unfurl the sails!

Pour

the tar!

Glue the mouth!

ULYSSES: Listen, if need, lock up the whole bunch!

(Only ULYSSES's voice can be heard. We cannot hear the answers. ULYSSES issues orders unceremoniously. Then the voice of the Walkie-Talkie is heard and then it turns into the sound of surf... Sea gulls... A shore.)

(ULYSSES is walking along the beach.)

Actually apart from the unfavorable weather forecast... Well, I must say, that apart from the fact that we did not have many options still open to us, because our divers had gone into the sea in the bay... He was in a weaker position... No, I do not mean that the atoll, geographically... No, he was just totally defenseless... All the time I had the feeling that there is some other... No, they would not admit it... It is a law of secrecy... But I can speak now... Of course I have no regrets... (Pause. Strikes a match and lights a cigarette.)

ANANKE

Do not petition me, petitioner!

I do not know

what comes

from the place where

there is no god.

Fate

was not conceived.

Man is not born

of an egg,

our bodies are not carved

of stone

and the Moirai

do not know

how the plant

of which the thread unseen

of fate is made

is sown

and how

it grows.

Do not petition me, petitioner,

distances are never

more distant than the end.

The ship's course

is unclear of course,

and in the heavy

oars

our fate

is harnessed.

CLOTHO: Ananke, goddess!

Not yet.

It is not night yet.

Allow us more time.

Brush the fur of the sacred goat,

gather more wool and let us

ATROPOS: weave

LACHESIS: and spin

CLOTHO: and knit.

THE THREE MOIRAI: More thread,

fate before the eyes

of the dead,

hollow bodies -

the end of a flash called now.

There is more of what -

So let us chose an answer to whom.

LACHESIS: More you say?

CLOTHO: Not yet.

ATROPOS: Not yet the net.

THE THREE MOIRAI: Not daylight yet.

CHORUS: You can tell I know

who am I

But tomorrow

you will know

that you am I

and that we burn down

at equal speed.

What is it

I know of life,

except the wonderment

of sailing?

What is that death

can teach us?

NECROGENES: That the spear is sharp.

TERATHEUS: That an arrow will pearce.

EURILOCH: That a stone can crack a skull.

PERIMEDES: That one hit in the legs will fall.

CORYPHAEUS: You disgraceful coward!

You have come from a cowards bunch.

A rabbits' trail could lead me

to less cowardly paths!

If only I had my way!

An airborne landing. Helicopters. Bombing.

SOLDIER 1: Coming in from the left.

ULYSSES: Beware! Code: Neoptolemus. Jump! I want him. Him or his body. I will hold you responsible. Neoptolemus, can you hear me! Act now. In a minute I commence shelling. You do not have much time.

SOLDIER 1: Can you hear me, Ulysses. They have all jumped.

ULYSSES: Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus. Where are you?

SOLDIER 1: I do not see them either. They must have landed. I cannot see through all that smoke!

ULYSSES: Neoptolemus... Neoptolemus... If they have landed why don't they answer? They must have been killed. Prepare the shells.

SOLDIER 1: I'm on course towards the northern quay! What is happening? Please speak! Are we to sacrifice those soldiers? How should I proceed?

ULYSSES: Fire.

SOLDIER 1: Yessir.

NEOPTOLEMUS: Neoptolemus speaking. We found him.

ULYSSES: Bomber2! Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Wait for further instructions!

SOLDIER 1: That was close. I nearly fried them.

ULYSSES: Neoptolemus, get out of there! I want him alive!

NEOPTOLEMUS: He won't live. Not with those wounds. There's no use trying. We can't save him...

ULYSSES: I want his body! Get him out of there!

NEOPTOLEMUS: That's none of my business...

ULYSSES: I want the body!

NEOPTOLEMUS: I do not speak, I cannot understand foreign languages...

ULYSSES: I want the body!

NEOPTHOILEMUS: I do not speak this language... In my school they did not teach foreign languages... I do not understand...

ULYSSES: Bomber 2. No use in waiting. They must be dead. Fire!

SOLDIER 1: Towards the north quay.

SOLDIER 2: I'll be coming in from your left!

SOLDIER 1: All right boys, let's kick some ass.

SOLDIER 2: Music to my ears!

SOLDIER 1: Stay on course!

SOLDIER 2: Do you think anything will be left of this atoll?

SOLDIER 1: I think we'll sink it!

SOLDIER 2: Let's get on with it!

15. THE WAY OF WAR - EXODUS

NECROGENES: They are coming.

TERATHEUS: They are marching.

PERIMEDES: Dragging the body.

NECROGENES: Who has been killed?

TERATHEUS: Who is alive?

EURILOCH: Who is he?

PERIMEDES: Who is lying there?

TERATHEUS: Whom are those two carrying?

NECROGENES: Who will bequeath his blood

to the shore?

PERIMEDES: Who is this

limp in his clothes?

EURILOCH: Who is this

who does not breathe?

PERIMEDES: Who is this

who writes in blood

on the beach

of the salty

blade

that has cut up

the isle of life

into the sea of death?

TERATHEUS: With a bow

it moves noiselessly -

smart snake

of Ithaca.

PERIMEDES: They are coming.

TERATHEUS: Two murderers.

EURILOCH: The third man

has no life in his legs,

PERIMEDES: no strength in his arms,

NECROGENES: no voice in his throat.

CORYPHAEUS: Pull up the oars!

Free all the ropes!

Back to the sea!

Troy is this way.

What is done is

done -

it is again our turn.

Go forth!

LIGEIA: Come back, Ulysses!

LEUCOSIA: Gone is his world,

PARTHENOPE: gone are the heroes,

LIGEIA: gone are the floods,

LEUCOSIA: and the masters of war.

PARTHENOPE: Longer are the syllables

LIGEIA: ever longer

LEUCOSIA: the breath of tongue pours out

PARTHENOPE: and the voices echo with the songs of unleashed vowels -

CHORUS: we are this flowing song.

LIGEIA: We sing along

LEUCOSIA: We sing along.

PARTHENOPE: Song.

LIGEIA: This voice of tongue

LEUCOSIA: thirsty

having drunk all vowels.

PARTHENOPE: Hear the hive of end.

CHORUS: Hear what heaves in us -

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

aaaaaaaaaahhhhh

eeeeeeeeehhhhhh

uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh

ooooooooooooooo!

PARTHENOPE: Bleat

LIGEIA: bawl

LEUCOSIA: cry

PARTHENOPE: moo

LIGEIA: whine

LEUCOSIA: sob

PARTHENOPE: shout

LIGEIA: scream

LEUCOSIA: chant

PARTHENOPE: sigh

LIGEIA: weep

LEUCOSIA: squeal

PARTHENOPE: ruckle

LIGEIA: bark

with us

LIGEIA: The sea is pus, Ulysses,

do not go swimming further

into the dead flesh of the earth!

CORYPHAEUS: Heroism lies waiting there!

CHORUS: Lies, lies, lies, lies...

PERIMEDES: They must be dead

in Troy.

Having opened up

the wound of war.

TERATHEUS: Phyloctetes,

you are now simply flesh,

but we hang from the tree.

The fruit of death.

EURILOCH: For me there is

an arrow in Troy.

It will pierce me through the heart.

I will go against a sword.

I will cover myself

with thick armor

and will be just decoration

a man of metal,

more bracelet than man,

upon a metal wrist.

I feel sorrow for myself.

NECROGENES: I row but am

already dead

a corpse,

a breathing corpse,

its hands will not let go the oars,

an eye in place of one eye

a void in place of the other.

I am ice

in hot water,

I disappear in death,

one day before I go.

I am an abyss,

falling into an abyss.

Yet the hands still row -

memories last

of sweet labor.

TERATHEUS: I will fall

in Troy's moat

I am the game

for tomorrow's hunt.

There are sharpened poles

in a trap for me

like a wild boar

I will be pierced

through and through

ten times

through

the flesh

the skin

the bone

the muscle

through the gristle.

I am a skeleton

dressed in mud.

Tomorrow

in hot water

the mud, transient me,

will be washed away!

I am in horror, that is all I can say.

PERIMEDES: Still blood today -

tomorrow limp

as a rag.

One more day

and I will be dust,

my blood will be wine

in a wine-skin body.

One more day

and I will be memory of homeless

wind.

Nothing will be

that never was.

The mouth has eaten all

and will no longer eat tomorrow.

CORYPHAEUS: Quiet! If only I could

push out on my own

all the ships to Troy

I would

have chewed with my own teeth

all those

pathetic

slaves, women

with soft bones,

with broken skin,

with weak hearts,

with squirming mouths,

with their milk teeth still,

I would have eaten all of them.

Slobbering slime!

Halfmen!

Grab the oars!

Keep the right course!

No talking!

You can sing

if you want.

Once again

we are on our way.

Rowing towards the shore,

because a shore

is typical of earth.

Once again we are off

towards the war.

Nothing is left

of the buildings

except

the wall of Troy.

The Wall of Troy

that stops infinity.

Roll in the feet of war

that measure - the ball

that is earth,

the last thing left of the balance.

Murder the moment

hiding in the heart of Troy,

for the world will never commence,

only the day

will commence once again.

CHIMERA: A letter for Ulysses,

sent in blood

along the veins

over the arches of the heart.

It is time to give the words

shelter

in your body that knows no shelter.

There is water only in words.

Beyond this world is the breeze

that carries the aromas of the earth.

And what is done is done,

the past is in the past,

the end is called the end!

The year has come to an end,

winter

enters your heart -

give

give the last thing,

to the one who takes!

PENELOPE: Are you returning to darkness, Ulysses?

CHARYBDIS: I lie on the seabed waiting,

my gills wave free,

on the sand you can see

all the sadness of me

while you were away, Ulysses.

Come

I will swallow you.

In the sea

the monster waits for me.

Completely

everything

will flow out

with the waves that know no shore

in the eye.

SCILLA: Poor thing,

CHARYBDIS: poor thing,

PENELOPE: poor thing...

CHIMERA: Ulysses

wake up in the night

cold

uncovered as you are.

Look, you,

the earth is a whale.

The sea is all the rest.

CHARYBDIS: I am cursed to be at the bottom

with the rust of all dead bodies.

Come on, come,

kiss the end of the worm which is me and which one day you too will be.

The gods are reflections

of drops that fall in the sea

while the whale

splashes with its tail.

After the death of the black spindle

I will make candles that will not go out,

candles made of whale sperm.

And then we'll nap

both of us dead

under that undying light.

The year is over.

The winter arrives through the gates

of your wounds.

I am Charybdis,

rotting in the empty feeling

of your absence

for you still have not returned.

The stomach is empty,

I have drunk all the water

of the world -

and I am still not satisfied!

Stop your wandering!

SCILLA: I am Scilla,

and Scilla is

rock

sifting the sea with blows.

Where is it,

what is it,

that which

I stuffed with spite in my teeth

and long afterwards spat out the wood and oars

towards

the bay of Atlantis?

Why did you lie to me:

<I am coming, I am coming>?

I awaited that moment -

to cram the horizons

in that wooden machine of yours.

Are you afraid of the rock?

CHIMERA: Could I be Medusa,

or am I Chimera?

Have you ever slept under the branches of my horror?

Who needs you and who does not need you?

But let me tell your fortune -

what remains is that

which for you remains.

Even Atlantis is under the water

There is no hope for you to reach Ithaca.

PENELOPE: You can see me on the opposite coast.

CHIMERA: Remember -

PENELOPE: you can see me on the opposite coast!

CHIMERA: But can you count for me

in your dream

the serpants

of my hair,

am I Medusa,

or am I Chimera,

what is that

which is nothing,

death

caused by

waiting?

What is the voice of the letter,

gold

that is melting,

golden caterpillars

crawl upon my thighs

when I remember Ulysses.

(A dictating machine accidentally left on. The sounds can hardly be made out: a recording made in a ship's cabin. Sound of the opening of a bottle... A sip from a glass...)

ULYSSES: Which of them is it? I will dismiss the leadsman from the watch. Go on ahead without me. Listen to me carefully. Close your eyes and sail the boat without thinking. Just listen to me. And relax. This is my sea. Ithaca is close, I feel it. This is my sea. Make a wide turn Make a circle. Follow your trail. Go two degrees to the right. The sun will rise behind you. When the wind begins to sound its horn from the side let go of the helm. Let the ship flow with the stream. Count to three hundred. Now you are on the other side of the rocks. Now watch. You will know the way... Clear it of the nettles... I cannot travel any longer... and to know... I do not want to know... Whether in time when the wars become even shorter... I am very tired... I am making this recording at 3.25 a.m.... (The click of a button is heard. Then another click. A new recording.)

ULYSSES: My dear Telemachus, The Trojan war

is over. Who won - I do not remember.

Probably it was the Greeks - that many corpses

only the Greeks could leave behind.

The road that is to lead me home

has turned out to be unexpectedly long.

Today I cannot remember how the war turned out,

I cannot remember today how old you are.

May you live long, my dear Telemachus.

I do not know if we will ever meet again.

You are no longer a child, a boy,

you do not need me for your safety.

But maybe it is best like this: for you to be

without me, free of Oedipus's passions,

on your own with your dreams so innocent.