I learned today that Gary Gygax, inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, died on March 4, 2008. D&D very much informed me growing up and I didn't really realize how grateful I am for the game until I heard today of its creator's death.
In honor of Mr. Gygax, a poem by Cesar Vallejo (translated by Clayton Eshleman):
The Eternal Dice
My God, I am crying over the being I live;
it grieves me to have taken your bread;
but this poor thinking clay
is no scab from your side:
you do not have Marys who leave you!
My God, had you been a man,
today you would know how to be God;
but you, who were always fine,
feel nothing for your own creation.
Indeed, man suffers you; God is he!
Today there are candles in my sorcerer eyes,
as in those of a condemned man--
my God, you will light all of your candles
and we will play with the old die...
Perhaps, oh gambler, throwing for the fate of
the whole universe,
Death's dark-circled eyes will come up,
like two funeral snake eyes of mud.
My God, and this deaf, gloomy night,
you will not be able to gamble, for the Earth
is a worn die now rounded from
rolling at random,
it cannot stop but in a hollow,
the hollow of an immense tomb.
1 comment:
I loved D&D as a kid. Oh, but how I heart Cesar Vallejo as an adult! This is really lovely, and fitting.
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