Leftéris Poúlios
From: Against (1983)
The soul's juice shivers
while the earth boils, filling with death.
Blind diver, plunged in the sand, you
blotted out by the sea and disrepair,
poet of the sword and cup
still seeking the lost faces
of the unburied
*
Dead calm; in the world's murky ear
no song, no sense in the heart,
conversation just dead fragments,
and the truth crucified
above the level of the gaze
*
Rain bolsters growth
fire endows wheels with motion
technology sustains life
gives self-confidence to man
*
They passed by without leaving a single shudder
in my veins
they touched me with nectar and speech
the deep-girdled Muses
*
Living beings bear witness to death
by their pleasant pursuits
There behind in God
the creatures sat like stones
no light in their various eyes
it was Necessity, that with murder and love,
led them into everywhere and always
*
Secluded red sign of a brothel
and stairs worn down
inaccessible church
where the outlawed God goes at night
junkie
and leaves at daybreak in a rush
to untangle the light of dawn
*
Marcos, did the muse break her baglamas
when you came out the last time
and played your grey ionic
harp of gold before the public?
All the rebetes in the world escaped
to Mars, staggering over the sounds
of your voice.
What world were you in, maestro, when
you emerged to take your stroll,
like wise old Socrates, did you see
Athens as it was then, small and cute and white
like a bit of skirt?
You were an old man and a saint,
Marcos, when I first saw you singing playback
on the fish-crate of the television
*
Translated by Avi Sharon
Page(s) 39-40
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