The translation of Ovid’s opening words in my last post was by Rolfe Humphries in 1955. I also like Mandelbaum’s from 1993. As is often the case – especially with the poet Rilke – I often weave together different translations into my favourite version. I particularly like the ‘breathe your breathe’ bit. And his opening words? Excellent. In this case, M’s version is far superior, so I won’t be doing any weaving!

My soul would sing of metamorphoses. But since, o gods, you were the source of these bodies becoming other bodies, breathe your breath into my book of changes: may the song I sing be seamless as its way weaves from the world’s beginning to our day.

Goddess metamorphoses ... sing and sing, breathe and breathe ... continue to animate and transform my script, my Screenplay PLUS.

I KNEW THAT SOMETHING WAS AFOOT … THAT THE GODDESSES WERE GOING TO HAVE THEIR OWN WAY WITH ME … THAT ‘MY’ FUGITIVE STAG WAS GOING TO LEAD ME TO PLACES I WOULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED …

AND THEN THE UNEXPECTED METAMORPHOSES. I BECAME THE FUGITIVE STAG. THIS MORNING, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I FIND MYSELF EHCHOING THE WORDS OF OVID, VIS A VIS THE TALE OF THE FUGITIVE STAG, HIS OPENING WORDS:

"My intention is to tell of bodies changed
To different forms; the gods, who made the changes,
Will help me - or I hope so - with a poem
That runs from the world's beginning to our own days"

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I ADD 'THE GODDESSES' 'WHO MADE THE CHANGES" ... AND MAY THEY  CONTINUE TO HELP ME WITH MY FILM ...