Michális Ganás
From: Shiny Iannina (1989)
I
The land dawned with many hills
and roused its creatures,
good people and bad, weasels,
foxes, a lake like the apple
of an eye and trampled citadels.
That must be Iannina, I whispered,
shiny and golden
in snow and fierce weather.
And as long as the day continued,
like a steamer on quiet water,
I watched the minarets and I heard
the copper-ware bleating.
II
On such a night, years ago,
someone walked alone, I don't know how many
dusty miles.
A night without stars, all cloud.
At daybreak he entered Iannina.
He ate at the first inn he came to, slept there
three whole days and nights. He woke from the snow
falling softly, stood at the window,
listened to the clarinets.
First they sounded faint, then close by,
brought by the wind.
Afterward he heard a voice,
crystal clear, from somewhere near,
a cry, as if they were slaughtering
a woman without the slightest quarrel, without
anything, it snowed all night in Iannina.
At daybreak he paid what he owed
and returned to his village.
He must have been in his fifties
with grey hair and three daughters,
all unmarried, himself four years a widower,
black cape draped over his shoulders,
and what snow those shoulders bore
no one ever learned.
VII
I know this place,
I passed it once as a child on horseback.
Everything has changed
beneath an identical sky.
I stretch out on the tall grass,
spring and rain, I do not cry.
I wish everything would fall again
onto this mute green embrace.
I turn over onto my stomach
and I hear heaven's lid closing.
In this ark
I am the kind with no companion.
Translated by Avi Sharon
Page(s) 46-47
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