Iso-mandala No. 258
Thomas Merton’s concrete poem employs permutations of VOID and OVID, not all of them actual Latin or English. The many non-standard words in the verses remind us of the fecundity and liveliness of language. In this mandala I have copied Ovid's description of Chaos in The Metamorphoses, paralleling it with an English translation in red.
Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum
unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,
quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles
nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem
non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.
Before the ocean and the earth appeared— before the skies had overspread them all—
the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.
It was a rude and undeveloped mass, that nothing made except a ponderous weight;
and all discordant elements confused, were there congested in a shapeless heap.
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