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Siegfried's Destiny

By Jim PowellPosted Wednesday, June 14, 2000, at 3:00 AM ET

When Siegfried killed the dragon

guarding the chamber of his destiny,

the mazy cave of legendary echoes,

tasting its blood

he understood

the parlance of the birds

and unperfidious language of wildflowers

and recognized his teacher's wheedling

purposed to wield him

to alien ends

an unknowing tool:

self-deluded in disillusionment,

estranged from his own purposes, astray,

he circled bewildered,

harrowed by furies

that drove him to distrust

even the overdose of dragon's blood

that unstopped his ears to the earth's voices

and purged his wits

of nice lies

delivering him at last

to the high rock-bound narrow windy pass

where the world falls away on both sides, there

to constellate

his fated stars.

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Jim Powell was the Sherry Poet at the University of Chicago in fall 2005. The January 2007 issue of Poesia (Milan) includes 15 translations of his work by Carlo Anceschi. He lives in Berkeley, Calif.
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