Always open, always watchful,
the eyes of my soul.
                                        Dionysios Solomos

 

 Observe how Eros works his magic spells,
 And how all love-sick mortals he compels.
 He quickens their desire and gives it might,
 And teaches them to wrestle in the night.
 He cheapens gold, to blemish he gives charm.
 And to the weakling lends a warrior’s arm;
 He makes the coward dare, the sluggard race,
 The awkward he endows with every grace.
 Love made Rotokritos to hold his ground
 And to defy the ten who gathered round.

                         From EROTOCRITOS (lines543-552)
                         Vizentzos Cornaros (16th-17th Century).

 

                THE BLOOD of love has robed me in purple
                And joys never seen before have covered me in
                                   shade.
                  I've become corroded in the south wind of
                                 humankind
                    Mother far away, my Everlasting Rose.

                    On the open sea they lay in wait for me,
              With triple-masted men-of-war they bombarded me,
                    My sin that I too had a love of my own
                    Mother far away, my Everlasting Rose.

                         Once in July her large eyes
                Half-opened, deep down my entrails, to light up
                      The virgin life for a single moment
                    Mother far away, my Everlasting Rose.

                     And since that day the wrath of ages
                  Has turned on me, shouting out the curse:
               "He who saw you, let him live in blood and stone"
                    Mother far away, my Everlasting Rose.

               Once again I took the shape of my native country,
                    I grew and flowered among the stones.
                  And the blood of killers I redeem with light
                    Mother far away, my Everlasting Rose.

 

                         From THE AXION ESTI, by Odysseus Elytis (1911-1996)
                    Translated by Edmund Keeley and George Savidis