Saturday Stories
February 10, 2018
I found one of my untitled and unpublished narrative poems recently. By coincidence, on the same day, a friend gave me the link to Setu Bilingual, a literary journal in English and Hindi based in Pittsburgh.
"Setu" is Sanskrit for bridge, "to connect the extreme ends of the words," to quote the publisher, "written and spoken, across the globe."
The story of my poem, which appears in the January 2018 edition of Setu Bilingual, is inspired by the meeting of God and Satan in the Book of Job – but that's where all similarities end.
Here is a short excerpt:
"'That’s the most ridiculous thing,'
said the Lord, 'since Vatican!'
The Devil cannot be distracted,
he’s in debate: 'Look,' he said,
'feed a dog and he won’t bite you,
but feed a man and he will.'"
I gave it a name, "Divine Comedy," in honor of Dante Alighieri, author of the 14th century epic Divina Comedia – the trilogy of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso – one of the greatest works of literature in history.
Another great inspiration is Mark Twain, the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, who had always cloaked his words of wisdom in humor.
There is quote from Mark Twain that has served me in good stead throughout my life. I found it in the book A Treasury of Courage of Confidence by Norman Vincent Peale when I was a kid, same age as Tom and Huck.
"I am an old man and have known a great many troubles," he said, "but most of them never happened."
See "Divine Comedy"
Photo courtesy of RussianChurchCheltenham.org.uk
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