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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1977 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1978 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1980 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1980 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1981 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1983 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1988 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1990 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1992 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1994 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1995 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1996 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1997 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 1998 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2001 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2001 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2002 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2004 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2007 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2009 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2009 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2011 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2014 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2015 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Camilo José Vergara 65 East 125th Street, Harlem 2016 inkjet print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
Roma
Again and again I kiss thy gates at departing
And against our will leave thy holy door-stone,
Praying in tears and with praises
such words as can pierce our tears.
Hear us, Queen, fairest in all the earth, Roma,
Taking post twixt the sky's poles,
Nurse of men! Mother of gods,
do thou hear us.
Ever we hymn thee and will, while the Fates can have power.
No guest can forget thee.
It were worse crime than forgetting the sun
If we ceased holding thy honor in heart,
Thou impartial as sunlight to the splash of all outer sea-bords.
All that Apollo over-rides in his quadriga
Hast thou combined into equity:
Many strange folk in one fatherland,
To their good, not seeking to dominate;
Gavest law to the conquered as consorts;
Made city what had been world.
They say that Venus was thy mother, that is by Aeneas,
Mars for father hadst'ou through Romulus,
Making mild armed strength, she in conquest:
One god in two natures;
Joy out of strife by sparing
O'ercamest the sources of terror
In love with all that remains.
– Rutilius Claudius Namatianus was born in Gaul in the late fourth century AD and held high office at the court of Honorius. His poem of return from Rome, De Reditu Suo, contains a famous tribute to the city written shortly after its siege and sack by Alaric the Goth in AD 410. The translation is by Ezra Pound (1963).
