AS IT LAY DYING
As it lay dying the sea thirsted
For the sun
But the winds
And the sea fog
Had cast the sun on the mountains
So much wind prevailed
That we measured the sea
And found she was the true mother
Of our desires
But
The life of the sea
Was not
A melting candle
Our wishes were not
Rabid dogs
The days sang beautifully
21.8.40
*
I HAVE SEEN ETERNITY
I have seen eternity in the forest
Trampling on corpses as it came towards me
But when all were resurrected the moment glowed
The stars smiled
And the sea rose like the beat of our hearts
Then eternity appeared wearing a fustanella*
22.6.40
*FUSTANELLA: The pleated white skirt of the Greek national costume and of the Republican Guards.
*
SPRING WILL COMMIT MURDER
They say that spring will first
Commit murder again
Will first commit murder
And then pass away
They say that spring has
Kissed everyone again
The lads have gone away
The lasses have remained
And nothing will return again
If spring does not return
They say that our warm
Our warmest day has arrived
22.1.40
*
MUSIC RECITES WHITE LOVES TO US
And yet music recites
White loves to us in the moonlight
While beggars look on nastily
And the garden veers towards spring
The garden veers towards spring
Loves whiten the moon
It remained for winter’s chord to snap
And for a fair voice to escape
When luck departed we became children
Pomegranates ate away our lips
Doves covered the night
And the hours could not fall into the dark
12.9.40
*
I HAVE A NEED
I have a need to be buried
Only by nightingales
Only by fountains
Sing to them that they may stop
And listen
To my own pain!
Sing to them that they may whiten
Like courtyards cast
To the honeysuckle!
There are days
When the nightingales have gone
And the fountains
Have revealed their secret
To passersby
Such hours
Such ugly virgins
I wouldn’t want to catch
Nor the flower and the soil
The flower and the earth
25.8.40
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