Andónis Fostiéris
From: Dark Eros (1977)
The Highway
Hugging a black cat in my arms;
(Perhaps my soul perhaps my fear
Perhaps ennui perhaps insanity
Perhaps even this poem
Which suddenly sprang from the thickets like a wild cat
On my chest).
Looming and alone on the nocturnal highway
Like a bell sounding the void on the ocean of my mind
Supernatural flower of my inner garden
Whose petals drop vainly in the darkness.
Behind me I can hear the sound of wheels
I am afraid to look
It must be God out for an evening ride on his bicycle
It must be the tank of time coming to flatten me
I feel language inside me melting away in the leaping fire
The days which have passed are melting away inside me
And I
who yearned for a life deeply steeped in beauty
Wander alone along the nocturnal road of my hours
Smoking the subterranean grief of this world
As from boredom and madness it commits suicide
Leaping out into
This planet's bottomless ravine —
Burning its name in its delirium
Slashing the veins of its hopes
Watering with their rich blood, right to its very leaves,
The tree of Hopelessness.
Translated by Christopher Robinson
Page(s) 118
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