I, Antonio Pigafetta, nobleman of Vicenza,
highly recommended, I joined the crew of Maggelan
on the way to Mollucs, towards the target of spice.
Beginning in the dark, ending in black Green Cape,
we lost souls, ships, then our captain in Philippines.
We cried, starved, insulted, but we kept the belief
from warrior Pacific down to the Cape of Good Hope.
We, eighteen souls saved out of two hundred fifty
did what? Only to save the honoured name of Spain.
Aboard Victoria we bring home the triumphant spice;
though bitter, is sweet on the palate, albeit as ash
of a dead, earns golden bars for our home treasury.
I fetch a fortune in the harbour Sanlukar de Barrameda
after three years, not twenty as Odysseus who came
back with empty hands. It's the spice, our daily bread.
Your Majesty, I confess: in the beginning it was spice.
Yet, what lands and titles you counterbalance for me?
© JosephJosephides
Joseph S. Josephides
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-beginning-it-was-spice/
