Politics can be fascinating, if it concerns your own country. But there’s nothing so tedious as other people’s politics. Affairs of state dominate the intellectual discourse in most countries. But a nation’s campaign obsessions are usually meaningless to outsiders.

The USA is an exception. What happens in the world’s economic and military superpower affects the entire planet. Plus it controls the television and internet landscape. With 95% of our cable channels and internet sites being American, sheer ubiquity means you can’t avoid the Democrats and Republicans.

But other than America, and to a lessening extent mother Britain, most Jamaicans know little about foreign politics. While important as they are to us, the governmental controversies of this tiny island hardly matter elsewhere. This applies even to West Indian cousins. Not so long ago the Chief Justice versus Chief Magistrate controversy was Trinidad’s main topic of conversation. But nobody in Jamaica cared. Just as nobody in Trinidad cares about Trafigura.

Politicians are ‘big a yard, small abroad’ across the globe. For instance when countries run ‘Greatest’ or ‘Most Important’ polls, modern leaders usually top the list. In Britain it was Winston Churchill. In Germany it was Konrad Adenauer. In France it was Charles De Gaulle. In America it was Ronald Reagan. The Jamaican choice would likely be Michael Manley.

But the picture changes across the border. How many outside Germany consider Adenauer more important than Goethe, Kant or Bach? To most non-Jamaicans Manley’s significance pales beside that of Marcus Garvey or Bob Marley. The politicians whose names survive across space and time tend to be war winners like Churchill or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. Even preeminent peace time administrators fade with their age. William Gladstone, perhaps ablest of 19^th century politicians, is slowly being forgotten even in Britain.

Ancient Athens invented democracy. But, save Pericles through his famous funeral oration, which elected Athenian leader is now remembered? Or which of its musicians or painters? Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander – these are the Greek names that live today. We keep in mind those who write great things, or have great things written about them.

And if only the written word lasts, lines of verse survive all else. Commonly laughed at while alive and often dying in poverty, the creations of poets are what endure. “World Poetry : An Anthology of Verse From Antiquity To Our Time” confirms this ancient truth. It contains

“…more than 1600 poems drawn from dozens of languages and cultures, and spans a period of more than 4,000 years from Ancient Sumer and Egypt to the late 20^th century. World Poetry encompasses the many realms of poetry – poetry of all styles, of all eras, of all tongues: from the ancient epic of Gilgamesh and the Pharaoh Akhenaten’s “Hymn to the Sun” to the haiku of Basho and the dazzling imagery pf Li Po; from the Vedic hymns to Icelandic sagas to the “Carmina Burina”; from the magnificence of Homer and Dante to the lyricism of Goethe and Verlaine; from the piercing insights of Rilke and Yeats to the revelatory verse of Emily Dickinson, Garcia Lorcia, Derek Walcott, Seamus Lynch, and so many more”.

Its 1338 pages make melancholy browsing. How many once mighty civilizations are represented by a few anonymous lines. How many left not even that. Great captains and mighty kings depart forever forgotten, unless celebrated by usually nameless bards. ‘O fortunate youth, to have found Homer as the herald of your glory!’ exclaimed Alexander at Achilles’ tomb.

Though not included in ‘World Poetry’, Shelley’s Ozymandias might be its theme.

‘And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains…’

Poets love to brag like Horace (65-8 bc)

‘This monument will outlast metal and I made it

More durable than the king’s seat, higher than pyramids…

Bits of me, many bits, will dodge all funeral,’

But creating even a single line that outlives you is akin to being struck by lightening and living. A few poetic boasts come true, but most are as hollow as Ozymandias’.

Mankind hasn’t changed much in 4,000 years. The second poem in the book, the Akkadian ‘The Cycle of Innana’ (c. 2000 bc) from Mesopotamia, might have been written by Lady Saw.

“I bathed for the shepherd Dumazi,

I perfumed my sides with ointment,

I coated my mouth with sweet-smelling amber,

I painted my eyes with kohl…

The shepherd Dumazi filled my lap with cream and milk,

He stroked my public hair, he watered my womb.

He laid his hands on my holy vulva,

He smoothed my black boat with cream,

He quickened my narrow boat with milk.”

Mostly we hear about remembered happiness lost or longed for pleasures unattained. Perhaps my favourite piece, at least so far since I’m still perusing, is ‘All The Teeth Ever I Had Are Worn Down’ by the Persian Rudaki (c. 920). Written long ago and far away, yet how modern and Jamaican even!

‘He paid, your lover, well and in counted coin

in any town where there was a girl with round hard breasts,

and plenty good girls had a fancy to him

and came by night but by day dare not

for dread of the husband and the jail.

Bright wine and the sight of a gracious face,

dear it might cost, but always cheap to me…

Eyes turned always towards little nimble curls,

ears turned always towards men wise in words…

the days are past when he managed affairs of princes

the days are past when all wrote down his verses…

Times have changed. I have changed. Bring me my stick.

Now the beggar’s staff and wallet.’

Sightless misery producing immortal verse. Who would willingly make such a bargain? Rudaki had no choice in the matter.

Ausonius’ (c. 310-395) rueful Latin tale resonates across the centuries.

‘I used to tell you, “Frances, we grow old.

The years fly away. Don’t be so private

With those parts. A chaste maid is an old maid.”

Unnoticed by your disdain, old age crept

Close to us. Those days are gone past recall.

And now you come, penitent and crying

Over your old lack of courage, over

Your present lack of beauty. It’s all right.

Closed in your arms, we’ll share our smashed delights.

It’s give and take now. It’s what I wanted,

If not what I want.’

And a word on politics from Kuan Hsiu (832-912) of the Chinese Tang Dynasty.

‘Reckless feasting, feckless loves:

no Sages, there…

Great ministers to audience; Mi’Lord

still in his cups, and even when he’d sobered

few wise words got past his ears.

So. The Palace of Ch’en

is rubble in this farmer’s field…’.