Rufinos, or Rufinus, was a Greek poet with a Latin Name. He was an Ionian of the second century before Christ and the author of a collection of amatory verses. Little beyond these bleak facts is known about his life.

Rufinos, though concerned with the human situation (comedy?), was not a significant social commentator. He, rather, tends to make statements which the reader comes to realize are true - and to accept them as "eternal verities" restated without falling into triteness. Rufinos, in many ways, is a poet of the status quo, working within the confines of a given societal and artistic tradition. He does not, in a larger sense, seek or chronicle great changes in the world. Instead, and with a chortle one suspects, he concerns himself with alterations in his own life, fortune and loves - and takes these, rightly or wrongly, as a measure for all mankind.

Also by Jan Michael Dyroff, Journies and Shows, ISBN 919594-21-2, $14.95