from From "The Phaenomena"

JOHN HOLLANDER

ARATUS: Fron THE PHAENOMENA

Wheeling between the helm of Argo and Cetus, stars

Appear, both small in size and tiny in magnitude,

And set beneath the Hare's side too-they are without

Names. For they're not arranged like parts of a perfect image

Of something, as are the stars in constellations that move

Along predictable paths as the cycles of time unroll

-Stars that, in the old days, were treated together in figures

Known by the name of what those figures most resembled.

(Back then no one was skilled enough to notice single

Stars, or give them names as individuals.)

There are so many stars! Whirling about the sky

In so many colors and varying degrees of brightness

That ancient sky-watchers needed to notice them in groups,

Patterned and figured together and glimmering into pic-

tures;

And thus the constellations were named, and never there-

after

Could any star rise at night single, and marvellous.

e

JOHN HOLLANDER

First study the horns on either side of the moon:

Evening, from time to time, will paint her with different

colors,

From time to time the shape of both these horns will change

While the moon waxes-one way on the third day, one on

the fourth.

You can learn from this about the month that's just begun:

If the moon looks slim and clear around the third day, then

It will be calm; but slim and reddish-looking means

Winds; while if her thick and blunted corners show

A weak light on the third and fourth nights, then her beams

Are being blunted by southern winds and rains to come.

If, on the third night, neither horn is tilted back

Or bent forward-the ends being vertical on both sides-

The western winds will follow soon thereafter that night.

But if they're still upright like that on the fourth day,

Then take it as a warning of an impending tempest.

If the upper horn seems to bend forward, the Boreal, north-

ern

Wind will come down; if bent backward, the southern one.

But when on the third day a whole ring, very red,

Entirely surrounds her, a tempest is sure to come;

The more red-hot she looks, the stronger will be the storm.