Mother's Day, U.S.

One of the unfortunate side effects of living as an expat is that you lose track of American things, as when I tried to get some business done at the U.S. consulate on the Fourth of July.  Mother's and Father's Days are on different days in France and the United States. So year after year, I would be reminded by storefronts and candy boxes that the Fête des mères was coming, but would forget about Mother's Day a couple of months later. And my mother isn't one to remind me!

But I love her very much. Here is a poem by C.P. Cavafy,  presented in her honor. I'm sure she too would have been a very sagacious Byzantine empress.

  Anna Dalassena

  In the golden bull that Alexios Comnenos issued
  to prominently honor his mother,
  the very sagacious Lady Anna Dalassena —
  distinguished in her works, in her ways—
  there are many words of praise:
  here let us convey of them
  a beautiful, noble phrase
  "Those cold words 'mine' or 'yours' were never spoken."

--tr. Dalven/Barbanis,The Complete Poems of Cavafy

Comments

[Ken B.]

French Mothers' Day is on June 3 this year. It is hard to keep track of the American Mother's Day, which is about three weeks earlier.