Anna Comnena

(Ana Komnena)

When the Emperor Alexius uncovered the plot
Of his ambitious daughter, Anna Comnena,
Princess of Byzantium,
He cut her hair and made her a nun.
She thereafter took to writing on parchment
And chronicled the startling history of the century,
Of the city of Durrës, the Norman sieges,
Of Komiskortes, hero of the Arberians.
Anna Comnena, princess of Byzantium,
Her hair shorn, grown old over her writings,
Wrote of the beard of Bohemund Guiscard
Which the people of Durrës had once insulted in public!
And this was all of greater value
Than her dreams of power.
Condemned to live the life of a nun,
She wrote and devoted herself to her times.