As a poet from another place, another culture, another language, Ovid finds himself a stranger in the desolate land he describes in his letter. Feeling trapped and purposeless in a rudimentary world, Ovid’s only way out is to adapt to the system, learn how to exist in this new world. In the process of learning this new culture, Ovid ironically transforms himself. The process of transformation forces Ovid to look to his past and mentally resolve certain unresolved issues in his life. As he allows his ego to step aside and addresses his personal past, Ovid starts to see this world in a new light; he begins to understand the people who live in this world. By coming to terms with his past, Ovid experiences a transformation that allows him to make great progress in his understanding of the human life.
Ovid’s first experiences of Tomis are colorless and strange. To enter a world of which one knew nothing would be difficult. After all the progress made in developing into a man and learning to exist in a world, Ovid must go all the way back to square one. Unable to understand the language, Ovid resides in a very silent world. After many months in such a silence, he glimpses something recognizable to him. He spots a red poppy flower amidst a sea of corn stalks, which prompts him to hark back to his past world. Retelling the experience, he says, “Scarlet. A little wild poppy, of a red so sudden it made my blood stop. I kept saying the word over and over to myself, scarlet, as if the word, like the color, had escaped me till now . . . Poppy, scarlet poppy, flower of my far-off childhood . . . And with it all the other colors come flooding back, as magic syllables,” (31). He goes on to say, “I had to enter the silence to find a password that would release me from my own life,” (32). Ovid comes from a world of pleasure and privilege. It was likely very hard for him (and his ego) to let go of the desire to be privileged in his new world. Having been so released, Ovid has now begun his transformation.
As Ovid’s transformation ensues, he continually mentions a sensation he has that he has already had these experiences in one way or another. After racing through the burial grounds on horseback, Ovid writes, “Oddly enough as I weave back and forth between the towering forms I feel a moment of exhilaration, and am reminded of something—something that my mind just fails to grasp, as if all this had happened before,” (45). Later on as he sits with the Child, he writes, “I have found myself more and more often slipping back into my own childhood;” he continues, “I fall into some timeless place in myself where the past suddenly reoccurs in all its fullness, or is still in progress. I am there again,” (82). Ovid relates his experiences of anamnesis, recollecting information from his past that is relevant and that possesses his present.
Addressing the obstacles in his life allows Ovid to shut the door on something old and open it on something new. Though it is difficult for Ovid to readjust to a new, more rudimentary way of life, the transformation he is able to make helps him to make great progress in his life. Though he feels as if he is starting anew, he draws from a deep past without knowing it. Anamnesis is the recollection of things we already know but have simply forgotten. As Ovid takes on this new world and has new experiences, he realizes that he has already been here before. It’s the same old story that he must see from a new perspective in order to grow.
