Hand And Stone So Near
By
Hand and stone so near by deceive death
The begonias of St. Martin's fields sigh
We are just about to playa little rain as an instrument on a Friday
Near the still uncut fruit trees
Together with all close relatives and chi ld ren
Mauve flowerbeds all turned
West of Sorrow
Ding it to ll s maybe it means I maybe you. On one foot
We all set off but only for two steps. One of untread-on dawn
And one of the end less sunset of Oia. Which means
That condensed days and nights act within us mostly in our ignorance
And how meek the grass how rough the unjustly broken stone
Thus the world Eleutherios Martes Joseph Artemis Kerykos
Melissine and the unripe grandchild of Vatana
The point of time reaches as far as Hephaestlls.
Translated from the Greek by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris
UMBERTO SABA
Smoke
Consolation of the long sleepless nights
in winter
-then, anguished, he roamed
the dark labyrinths of thought; hand
running anxiously to your call-
the taut
thread rises, then breaks,
and from the open window, one ray
colors the sky;
and it reminds me of a little house, alone
among the fields, smoking from its dinner.
