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Might that have been the king of
Asine
we have been searching for so carefully on this acropolis
sometimes touching with our fingers his very touch upon the stones.
George Seferis
(Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley)
EGO AND HIS BROTHER
A devil cradled him, I knew his hands
At my throat, I tasted tears
And walked in a dark street. He shouted,
And the ghouls peeked at me from the stairs.
Whatever he touched turned black, poisoning
Metal, wood, flowers that cringed in my hands,
I acknowledged death and rode
In long circles on the great desert sands.
The demon at my side shed his long cloak
Like flames and danced in the skies,
Heat burst in his hatreds, I stoned
My friends who looked out of his bitter eyes.
And innocently if you walk with him
He will punish your smiles, he will
Fight in your head with stammers,
He will raid in your love and spiIl
The food of kindness and kick the sky
Down
in
a fury and beat God with a spoon,
For he is the terrible infant who knifes
His own sorrow and sleeps
in
the ruin.
But always in your remorses put him down
Below changes, keep him back in your courage,
