Dawn Chorus
A Recycled Poem from the Ancient Greek Tebtunis Papyri
Translated by Salvatore Quasimodo & Jack Ross
In Collaboration with Béatrice Carlson
"Where we meet" Angela Morton Room, Takapuna Library
23 August -27 September 2026
Dawn Chorus, Collaborative work
From New Zealand poet Jack Ross:
Research, Translation, Interpretation
ΠΟΜΟΣ ΟΡΘΡΙΟΣ (Anon. c 1st-3rd century BCE)
ξουθὰ δὲ λιγύφων᾽ ὄρνεα δι᾽ ἐφετᾶν ἔρημον
δρίος ἄκροις ἐπὶ κλωσὶ πίτυος ἥμεν᾿ ἐμινύριζ ἐτιττύβιζεν
κέλαδον παντομιγῆ, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄρχετο, τ[ὰ δ᾽ ἔμ] ελλεν, τὰ δ᾽ ἐσίγα,
τὰ δὲ βωστρεύοντ᾽ ἀν᾿ ὄρη λαλεῦσι φωναῖς, φιλέρημος δὲ νάπαις λάλος ἀνταμείβετ᾽ ἀχώ
Canto Mattutino (Salvatore Quasimodo - c. 1930s)
Dorati uccelli dall'acuta voce, liberi
per il bosco solitario in cima ai rami di pino
confusamente si lamentano; e chi comincia,
chi indugia, chi lancia il suo richiamo verso i monti:
e l'eco che non tace, amica dei deserti,
lo ripete dal fondo delle valli.
Morning Song. (trans. Jack Ross - 2026)
Bright birds with their sweet voices freely
through the lonely forest on pine branches
sing their sorrows one starts off
another takes it up some cry to the hills
until the burbling echo friend of emptiness
replays them in the hidden valley
Dawn Chorus (Jack Ross - 2026)
Native birds with raucous voices
cry from our backyard
for food or love
or just to say they’re there
echoing outward
through the bay
up to the hilltop
rush-hour traffic
Notes & Sources (Jack Ross)
The poem this collaboration was based on was discovered among the Tebtunis papyri sometime in the early twentieth century. These papyri fragments were (according to Wikipedia):
… written in either Demotic Egyptian or Koine Greek and were found during a single expedition led by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, two British papyrologists in the winter of 1899/1900 at the village of ancient Tebtunis (near modern Umm-el-Baragat), Egypt. The papyri can be divided into three groups based on their provenance: texts from the crocodile mummies, the town and from the temple of Soknebtunis, and the cartonnage of human mummies. A total of 1093 fragments of the Tebtunian papyri are registered ...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tebtunis_archive]
Most of them have been dated to sometime between the 3rd and 1st century BCE. This particular piece was translated into Italian by poet and classicist – and future Nobel Prize winner – Salvatore Quasimodo, and included in his wartime collection Lirici Greci [Greek Lyrics] (1940):
Salvatore Quasimodo. Lirici Greci: Testo Greco a fronte. 1940. Saggio di Luciano Anceschi. 1944. Biblioteca Moderna Mondadori clxxxix. Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1951. pp. 152-53.
Dawn Chorus Artwork (Béatrice Carlson)
It started with talks and words and how we could define a common ground… Recycling.
Jack recycles words from a language to another, traduction, interpretations.
I recycle material, objects: fabric remnants and beer cans.
Material & Process:
Everything is handmade with non-toxic methods
-Papyrus paper in reference to the first text in Greek from Jack Ross researches -Dyed silk and cheesecloth with black lime,
-Uneven cold wax oil painted linen
-Beer cans cut in teardrops, words used: recycle, use in moderation, made in New Zealand, be good, do good; Images are left: birds, stars, sunshine.
-Brass wire hand hammered shaped like a twig Symbols, metaphors.
Harmony:
Rising gold, clearing darkness.
My work has to be in front of a window, showing all the colours from dawn to dusk showing all the layers and rhythm. Playing with transparency and shades. The poems are pinned as if ready to be picked up, taken or offered and replaced again…
Like every day the sun rises and the birds sing.
