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I was fortunate to have studied printmaking at Pratt Institute, the University of Hawaii, and the University of California-Berkeley—and would like to celebrate International Print Day by “exhibiting” some of the prints I’ve done over the past fifty-five years: the first piece, “Emblems of Conduct” (based on a poem by Hart Crane) an aquatint (an intaglio technique, a variant of etching); the second a color woodcut (a poem in Classical Greek, “The Lost World of Adonis,” by Praxilla); the third a color woodcut (a poem in Russian, “A Sail,” by Mikhail Lermontov); the fourth a color woodcut, “Crucifix” (title in Koine Greek: Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!); the fifth a color woodcut also (a poem in Russian, “To Love Some Women Is a Heavy Cross,” by Boris Pasternak).

I have included my own translations of the poems after the “exhibition” of prints. Happy International Print Day everyone!

THE LOST WORLD OF ADONIS

Loveliest of what I leave is the light of day,

and secondly the brilliant stars and the moon’s face,

but also ripe cucumbers, apples, and pears.

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A single sail shimmers, lonely,/ above the azure mist of sea;/ what does it seek in distant lands?/ What has it left so far behind?

Waves play. The wind sings./ The masts creak, constantly./ How sad! It is not joy he seeks,/ nor happiness from which he runs.

A blue light glows within the waves./ The sun above burns golden./ Yet the rebel sails toward storm,/ as if in storm alone were peace.

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TO LOVE SOME WOMEN IS A HEAVY CROSS

To love some women is a heavy cross/ but you are beautiful without blemish./The secret of your subtle charm/rivals the secret of life itself.

Spring comes, rustling, and we know again/ what stirs with novelty and truth./ From that source you began./ Your meaning’s clear and like the air, so unconcerned.

Lightly you’re aroused, and then to ripen!/To shake from out the heart the waste of words–/ to live! No longer bound./ But this takes more than cunning, more than craft.