ADAGIO - BY ODYSSEUS ELYTIS

ADAGIO

ODYSSEUS ELYTIS (trans. Nikos Tselepides)

Come, let us talk
about that slumber
and the lazy pillow
that’s been swimming
in the moon next door.
Let’s play it quiet
and fill the beach
with stars and seaweed.
Because we’ve lived our tears
and we can now take
the right kind of peace when it comes.
Let angels with reckless violins
fill out the evenings with Aeolian lights
and hearts that ring like bells.
Let flutes be like the wind
and full of light desire.
Let kissing be the tortured kind
and precious, like oars that sparkle
as they live the water out.
And let the medusas who will make us
move so slowly sit deeper still –
among the burning, wild fig-trees,
blonde voices with a slow and sound
music, by beaches with the few
but thoughtful trees.
O come to me and we’ll set up
new frames of dreams
and find our peace together.
Only a heart will still remain
in the sky, sometimes bitter and
sometimes fascinated, only a heart
belonging to our own so wide and empty sky.
Come, bend on my shoulder
and dream of the reasons why you’re
such a beautiful woman.
O you’re such a beautiful woman.
You are beautiful. Beautiful.

Julie Harper Lauterstein