Table of Contents
Stanza 7
Just look at here, how wonderful is life here, because here are the beds of amaranth and moly (sweet smelling flowers). Then they give a description of this beautiful place, and they say how wonderful it would be to lie there and listen to the river and watch the river.
They can hear echoes of many sounds, and they can hear the sound produced by the waves of the sea. They can see the sea, and they can also see the salty water of the sea. It is wonderful to sit here under a pine tree and to look at the sea and listen to the sounds of the sea. So isn’t any day better than the uncertainties, the uncertain life that we are going back to live in Ithaca.
Stanza 8
Everywhere there are lotus plants, and there will be no death to it. We can live here for years, and there will be a steady supply of Lotus flowers and fruit. We can eat them for a long time and continue in this blissful state. They say that there is enough action and motion.
We have been moving around for so long. We have been fighting, battling, killing, and saving our lives for so long. We have been rolling for a long time on the ship, we have been tossed to the left and right of the ship. Sometimes the whale would come under the ship and would send up the spout of water the ship would have carried up and down.
We have been living a horrible life on the sea. Now it is done, and let’s make a final decision and follow that decision. The decision is that we are going to live here because it is hollow land. We are going to recline here, and we are not going back to our land. Let us live like the gods living in the mountains, and they are careless of mankind.
The gods lie behind their nectar; all the comforts are within their reach. They are very comfortable, and they are having a wonderful time there. They have sent all the turmoil in this world into the human being. Their houses are covered, secured, and cushioned in clouds, so they do not feel insecure or unsafe.
They lie down, looking down at the world and what is happening here. They are having a wonderful time watching the drama going on down here in the world. Human beings are suffering because when the bolts are held the lands are wasted, there is blight, plague, famine, earthquake, roaring deep fury sands, there are fights, towns are burning, ships are sinking, and people are praying, but the gods are not bothered.
God does not care for people; they inflict all kinds of hazards and tragedies on the human world, they enjoy it and watch it with great interest, they smile, and the sad cries of human beings are like music to the gods. They call human beings the ill-used race of men that plow and cultivate the hard sand, sow the seeds, and harvest the crops with hardships, and then they store a little wheat, wine, and oil, They try to make something out of their hardships.
What happens after death, Is there any respite after death? No, you are not sure. There is no guarantee that even after death you are going to be happy because some people are fated to go to hell and suffer there, so it is just the continuation of the sufferings of the earth, and some will go to Elysium.
People who reach Elysium by some good fortune will finally rest on beds of asphodels (a kind of flower) isn’t that what we are doing here, lying on the beds of Amaranthus and Molly? Then they say that sleep is better than hard work, this island is definitely better than laboring in the middle of the deep ocean, fighting the waves of the wind and struggling with the ore against the strong waves, so any day there is a comparison between the two.
They say to Ulysses that you have to make this decision, this is the only choice open to us, let us remain here and not go home back. Let’s just continue the wonderful and blissful existence on this beautiful island.