"The Gang in the Black Suits ," thriller by Paul Feval ;
The plot's in my heart and not on the screen .
The cops and mounties close round and corral
A thief in dire straits: a sudden sheen
Spreads through the crowd, my eyes fill with tears!
The sheen is a halo, in its light, God appears.
To me, this gift! Why did you choose to meet
me here? In this movie on a little side street
The drapes of a taper-white mantle enfold
My concierge's four urchins you once told
Me to care for. Can the human soul
Hide no scrap from your eyes , must it be seen whole?
Is there for your vision no mystery in our heart?
Do you penetrate
all
beings in every part?
Then why? Why this grace
If
you know my life in all its ugliness?
If
you know my faults and my weaknesses too?
What in me , Oh Lord, could interest you?
Translated from the French by Rosanna Warren
Odysseus Elytis
THE ALMOND OF THE WORLD
I.
What happens when
there's lightning in memory's far land
and scenes yet to happen are reflected
in some unsuspected time
a little girl running
at the shore's very edge
to lift the sea's tablecloth (Dali)
and another girl behind her hoop
on a long melancholy road (de Chirico)
