Dimítris Kalokýris
From: The Wharf (1984)
Eleni
in the frozen night.
SOMETIMES
just as humidity's axis rotates the world
and the blade crosses the moon's flesh
from the crater of Ionia
till the sea of Artaxerxes
like a silver Harley that sinks
as in films amid the lightning
to the bottom of the sun's point
(that the orbit of November's black flag
may inundate the winter)
SOMETIMES
when speech and silence
stubbornly contest the meaning
from the deserted nuptual chamber of city-destroying Eleni
to the ellipticalness of Jupiter — whoever he may be —
and the process of decay ends
that in the darkness as they come
and emerge bright red in the ethylene and sulphur
the moving signs of night might appear
(as they flash and scatter whistling
in the visible nature of desperation)
SOMETIMES
When the hand keeps vigil
and invisible wanders on the acropolis
in Cora's blossoming greenhouse
that electrified law
may be embodied in silk
just as sleep leaps from the covers
and spreads over aerials and kitchens
in the shops with the colourful fabrics
the mementoes from secret wars
(in the jars of mints from the good old times
the hairdressers' and machine works)
THEN
Love returns and reverses the course of emptiness
the living blade of death
that silently journeys day and night
on the urns' dark surfaces
and step by step reciprocates its route
in the ruined quarters of Lacedaemonia
with the metallic movements of the compass
that passes
from the victorious celebration
to the universe.
She closes her eyes.
Turns up the radio loud;
wraps herself in metal plate and petrol;
gazes deeply into the illuminated dashboard;
calmly transgresses
men's limits and signs
depresses the accelerator and soars off, into the moon's
burning flesh
somewhere between rock music
and the now lost game of the saints.
Translated by David Connolly
Page(s) 77-78
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