THE AXION ESTI

Much have they afflicted me from my youth up;

But they have not prevailed against me.
PSALM 129:2

''Axion esti" means "worthy it is" and is found in a hymn to the Virgin from the Byzantine
liturgy and in a Good Friday encomium to Christ: "Worthy it is to glorify Thee, Giver of Life,
Who didst extend Thy hand upon the Cross, and shatter the power of the enemy:' It is also the
name of an icon of the Virgin on Mount Athos.
 The Genesis

Seven free-verse hymns with a refrain, each hymn describing a new stage of Creation, of Man,
of Day.
 IN THE BEGINNING the light 1 And the first hour
when the lips still in clay
taste the things of the world
Green blood and bulbs golden in the earth
And the sea so exquisite in its sleep spread
unbleached gauzes of sky
beneath the carob trees and the tall standing palm trees
There alone
grievously weeping
I faced the world
My soul sought a Signalman and Herald
Then I remember I saw
the three Black Women
Lifting their arms to the East
Saw their gilded backs and on their right
the slowly dissolving cloud
that they left And plants of strange design
It was the whole many-rayed sun with its axle
in me that beckoned And
he who I truly was He many aeons ago
He still green in the fire He uncut from the sky
I felt him come and lean
over my cradle
like memory become present
it took on the voice of trees, of waves:
"Your commandment:' he said, "is this world
written in your viscera
Readandtry
and fight" he said
"Each with his own weapons" he said
And he spread his arms like
a young novice God to mold together pain and joy.
First high up on the walls
the Seven Axes2 were pried loose
with great force and fell

i. "In the beginning"brings to mind the openings of both John's Gospel and the Book of Gen-
esis.
2. "the Seven Axes": On the wall of Heracleion, on Crete, near where Elytis was born, were
seven axes symbolizing the seven regiments enforcing Turkish rule. In 1912 Crete joined
Greece, and the axes were taken down.

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123
 like the Storm
at its zero point where a bird
is fragrant again from the beginning
the blood returned home clean
and monsters took on a human face
So sensible the Incomprehensible
And then all the winds of my family came
boys with puffed-out cheeks
and wide green tails like Mermaids
and other aged men known of old
testaceous long-bearded
And the winds divided the cloud in two And then again into four
and they blew the bit that remained and sent it North
And lofty the great Koules 1 set a broad foot on the waters
The horizon line brightened
visible and thick and impenetrable

THIS the first hymn.

AND HE who I truly was he many aeons ago

He still green in the fire He not created by Hand
with his finger drew the distant
lines
sometimes ascending sharply on high
and other times curving gently lower down
one into the other
great lands that I felt
smell ofearth like mind

So true was the earth

that followed me faithfully
it became redder in secret places
and elsewhere with many small pine needles
Later more indolently
the hills the downslopes
sometimes the hand slow in rest
ravines plains
and suddenly again savage naked boulders
very strong impulses

1. "Koules": Venetian fortress on the bay ofHeradeion.

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124
 The moment he stood to contemplate
something difficult or lofty
Olympus Taygetus
"Something to stand at your side
"even after you die" he said
And he drew threads through the stones
and brought forth schist from earth's guts
he fixed in place the wide stairs all around the hillside
There alone he laid
white marble fountains
mills of winds
small pink cupolas
and tall perforate dovecotes
Virtue with its four right angles
1

And as he thought it beautiful to be in each other's arms

the big water troughs filled with love
where animals calves and cows innocently stooped
as if no temptation were in the world
as if knives had not been made yet
"It takes guts to endure peace" he said
and turning around he sowed with open palms
mullein crocuses bluebells
all species of earth's stars
pierced in one leaf as a mark of noble descent
and superiority and power

THIS
the world the small the great!

BuT BEFORE I heard wind or music

as I set off for a clearing
(ascending a boundless red sand dune
erasing History with my heel)
I wrestled with the bedsheets It was this I sought
innocent and quivering like a vineyard
and deep and uncarved like the sky's other face

"Virtue": The modem Greek word is arete. See "Sleep of the Brave (Variation)" in Six and
i.
One Remorses for the Sky, written at the same time as The Axion Esti.

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125
 A bit of soul in the clay
Then he spoke and the sea was born
And I saw and I marveled
And in it he sowed small worlds in my image and likeness:
Stone steeds with manes erect
and serene amphorae
and dolphins' slanting backs
los Sikinos Seriphos Melos
"Each word a swallow
to bring you spring in the midst of summer" he said
And so many olive trees
sifting the light through their hands
so it spreads soft in your sleep
and so many cicadas
that you don't feel them
as you don't feel the pulse in your wrist
but only a little water
so you hold it a God and understand what its word means
and the tree by itself
with no flock
so you make it your friend
and know its precious name
the soil thin at your feet
so there's no room to spread your roots
and to keep going deeper
and broad the sky above
so you yourself can rea.d the infinite

THIS
the world the small the great!

"AND THIS THE WORLDyoumustseeandreceive"

he said: Look! And my eyes cast the seed
running the thousands of untrod acres
faster than rain
Sparks taking root in the dark and sudden jets of water
The silence I reclaimed to brood
germ-cells ofletters and golden seeds of oracles
With the spade still in my hands
I saw the big short-legged plants, turning their faces

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126
 some barking some sticking their tongues out
Here's the asparagus here's the rabe
here's curly parsley
ginger plant and geranium
Queen Anne's lace and fennel
Secret syllables through which I strove to articulate my identity
"Bravo:' he said to me, "you know how to read
and there is still a lot you'll come to learn
if you study the Insignificant in depth
And a day will come when you will take on helpers
Remember:
the infighting Zephyr, the erebus-killing pomegranate
the flaming swift-footed kisses"
And his speech vanished like fragrance
Partridge the ninth hour beat into the deep heart of euphony1
the houses stood in solidarity
small and square
with white arches and indigo doors
Beneath the grape arbor
I daydreamed for hours
with tiny chirps
croaks, twitters, distant coos:
Here's the pigeon here's the stork
here's the gypsy bird
the oriole and the water hen
and the mayfly was there too
and the praying mantis called Virgin's pony
The seaboard with my limbs naked in the sun
and again the two seas
with a third between-lemon citrus tangerine trees
and the other northwester with its high upper strait
spoiling the sky's ozone
Low at the bottom of the leaves
the smooth seashingle
the flowers' little ears
and the impatient shoot which are

THIS
the world the small the great!

1. "partridge the ninth hour ... euphony": quoted from "The Whole World" (Orientations).

THB AXION BSTI

127
 AN o then I understood the surf and the long endless whisper of the trees
I saw the red water jugs lined up on the dock
and closer to the wooden window shutter
where I lay sleeping on my side
the northwind crowed more loudly
Andi saw
Korai beautiful and naked and smooth as a beach pebble
with a bit of black in the nook of their thighs
and a rich spread of it along their shoulder blades
who standing blew into the Conch
and others writing in chalk
strange, enigmatic words:
ROES, ESA, ARIMNA
NUS, MORILMATITY, YELTIS 1
small voices of birds and hyacinths
or other words of July
At the stroke of eleven
five fathoms deep
perch gudgeon seabream
with huge gills and short boat-stem tails
Ascending I found sponges
and starfish
and slender speechless anemones
and higher up at the water's lip
rosy limpets
and half-opened pina clams and sea grass
"Precious words," he said to me, "ancient oaths
spared by Time and the sure hearing of distant winds"
And near the wooden window shutter
where I lay sleeping on my side
I pressed a pillow tight to my chest
and my eyes filled with tears
I was in the sixth month ofmy loves
and in my belly a precious seed was stirring

THIS
the world the small the great!

1. "ROES ... ":anagrams. (In Greek a second choice for"ROES"would be "HOURS.")

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128
"BuT FIRST you will see the wilderness and give it your own meaning," he said
"It will precede your heart
and will continue afterward
Know this above all:
what you save in the lightning
will last pure forever"
And high above the waves
he set villages of cliffs
The foam reached there as dust
I saw a frail goat lick the crevices
with a slant eye lean body hard as quartz
I lived the grasshoppers and the thirst and their rough-joined fingers
for the fixed number of years as Knowledge determines
Stooped over papers night after night
and descending into fathomless books
with a skinny rope
I sought the white up to the ultimate intensity ofblack
Hope up to the point of tears
Joy up to extreme despair
Then came the moment for help to be sent
and the lot fell to rain
streams purled all day
I ran like mad
to the slopes I tore broom and my hand offered
much myrtle for the breezes to bite
"Purity;' he said, "is this
on the slopes as in your guts"
And he spread his arms like
an old prudent God to mold together clay and heavenliness
and he lightly tinged the peaks a molten red
but he fixed the grass an unbitten green to the ravines
mint lavender verbena
and lambs' little hoofprints
or elsewhere again thin threads of silver falling
from the heights, cool hair of a girl I saw and desired
Areal woman
"Purity:' he said, "is this"
and filled with yearning I caressed the body
kisses teeth to teeth; then one into the other
I quivered

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129
 like an anchor rope I stepped so deep
that the caves took in wind
White-sandaled Echo passed quickly for a moment
as a garfish under the water
and I saw the Great Ram ascend Unstepping on high
having the hill for a foot and the sun for its horned head
And he who I truly was He many aeons ago
He still green in the fire He uncut from heaven
whispered when I asked:
-What is good? What is evil?
-A point A point
and on it you balance and exist
and beyond it trepidation and darkness
and behind it the grinding teeth of angels
-A point A point
and on it you can infinitely proceed
or else nothing else exists anymore
And the Scales that, as I spread my arms, seemed
to weigh light against instinct, were

THIS
the world the small the great!

AND BECAUSE THE HOURS turned like days

with broad violet leaves on the garden clock
I was the clock's hand
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
June July August
I was pointing to necessity which struck my face
like seaspray Insect of girls
Distant lightning flashes of Iris
"All these the time of innocence
the time of the whelp and the sprout
long before Necessity:' he said to me
And he pushed danger away with one finger
He clothed the cape's ridge in a black eyebrow
From an unknown place he poured phosphorous
"For you to see:' he said, "inside
your body
veins of potassium, manganese

THE AXION ESTI

130
 and the calcified
ancient remnants oflove"
And then my heart clenched tight
it was the first creaking ofwood inside me
perhaps of an approaching night
the voice of the owl
the blood of somebody killed
returning to the upper world
Far away, at the edge of my soul, I saw
secretly passing by
high lighthouses like field hands Crossbeamed castles on cliffs
The polestar Saint Marina with the demons 1
And much further behind the waves
on the Island with bays 2 of olive groves
It seemed for a moment that I saw Him
who gave his blood for me to incarnate 3
once more ascending the Saint's rough road
once more
Once more
placing his fingers on the waters ofYera4
and so the five villages ignite
Papados Plakados Palaiokipos
Skopelos and Mesagros
authority and inheritance of my kin
"But now:' he said, "your other face
must ascend to the light"
and long before I had in mind
a sign of fire or shape of tomb
Where no one was able to see
bending over
his hands stretched out
he prepared the great Voids on the earth
and in the body of man:
the void of Death for the Coming Infant

i. St. Marina wards off demons.

2. "Island with bays": Lesbos, Elytis' ancestral island.
3. "who gave his blood... ": St. Theodore ofMytilene, (eighteenth century), claimed as an an-
cestor ofElytis.
4. "Yera": a beautiful bay on Lesbos; the five villages listed here overlook it. Elytis's mother was
from near Yera.

THE AXION BSTI

131
 the void of Murder for the Just Judgment
the void of sacrifice for the Equal Compensation
the void of Soul for the Responsibility to Others
and Night a pansy
of an old
Moon sawn by nostalgia
with ruins of an abandoned mill and the harmless fragrance of manure
took a place inside me
It changed the dimensions of faces; it portioned out burdens differently
My hard body was the anchor sunk in men
where is no other sound
but thuds waitings and lamentations
and cracks on the face's other side
Ofwhat nonexistent race was I the descendent
only then did I realize
that the thought of the Other
like a glass edge diagonally
incised me from one side to the other as I stood
I saw clearly as if there were no walls
old women holding lanterns going about their houses
cracks on their foreheads and on the ceiling
and other mustached young men tying weapons around their waists
speechless
two fingers on the gunstock
centuries now.
"See;' he said, "they are the Others
and there's no way for Them without You
and there's no way for You without Them"
See," he said, "they are the Others
and you really must confront them
if you want your countenance to be ineffaceable
and to stay so.
Because many wear the black shirt
and others speak the language of oinks
and they are Raweaters and Louts of Water
Wheatphobes and the Livid and Neocondors
a bunch and crowd of the Fourbeamed
cross's points.
If you truly stand firm and confront them;' he said,
"your life will acquire keenness and you will lead;' he said
"Each with his own weapons;' he said

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132
 And he who I truly was He many aeons ago
He still green in the fire He uncut from the sky
He passed into me And became
he who lam
It was night's third hour
the first cock crowed
far over the huts
I saw for a moment the Standing Columns the Metope with Strong Animals 1
and Men bearing Divine Knowledge
The Sun assumed its face The Archangel forever on my right

THIS then am I
and the world the small the great!

I. "Standing Columns ... Animals": the Parthenon.

THE AXION ESTI

133
 The Passion

Three forms are represented in this sequence: free-verse psalms (P), odes of complex metri-
cal responsion (0), and prose readings (R). There are three sections, identically structured:
PPOROPPOROPP. In the first, consciousness confronts tradition (Greeks resist in Albania in
World War II); in the second it confronts danger (occupation of Greece in WWII); in the third,
it overcomes danger (civil war, post-WWII).
Elytis did not use the designations psalm and ode except in his notes. They are added here
as an assist to the reader and for convenience in scholarly reference.
Psalm I

BEHOLD here am I
created for young Korai andAegean islands;
lover of roe deer's leaping
and initiate of olive leaves;
sun-drinker and locust-killer.
Behold then I confronting
the black shirts of the resolute
and the empty belly of years, in convulsion
aborting its children!
Wind lets loose the elements and thunder assails the mountains.
Fate of the innocent, again alone, here at the Narrow Passes!
At the Passes I opened my hands
At the Passes I emptied my hands
and I saw no other riches, and I heard no other riches
but cool fountains flowing with
Pomegranates or Zephyr or Kisses.

Each with his own weapons, I said:

At the Passes I shall open my pomegranates
At the Passes I shall post Zephyrs as guards
I shall unleash old kisses my longing consecrated!
Wmd lets loose the elements and thunder assails the
mountains.
Fate of the innocent you are my own Fate!

THE AXION ESTI

137
 Psalm II*

I WAS given the Greek language;

a poor house on Homer's beaches.
My only care my language on Homer's beaches.
Seabream there and perch
windbeaten verbs
green sea-currents amid the azure currents
which I felt light up in my viscera
sponges, medusae
with the first words of the Sirens
pink shells with their first black shivers.
My only care my language with the first black shivers.
Pomegranates there, quinces
swarthy gods, uncles and cousins
pouring olive oil in huge jars;
and breaths from the ravines smelling
of chaste-tree and lentisk
broom and ginger root
with the first cheeps of the finches,
sweet psalmodies with the very first Glory to Thee.
My only care my language with the very first Glory to Thee!
Laurel there and palm fronds
censer and censings
blessing the sabres and flintlocks.
On the ground spread with vineleaves
odors of grilled meat, eggs cracking
and Christ is Risen 1
with the first gunshots of the Greeks.
Secret loves with the first words of the Hymn. 2
My only care my language, with the first words of the Hymn!

* The unprinted title is "The Poet and His Language:'

1. "On the ground ... Risen": Easter celebration. Friends knock together the tips of red-dyed
eggs to see whose will crack first.
2. "the Hymn": the Greek national anthem, words by the poet Dionysios Solomos (1798-
1857), who crucially influenced modern Greek poetry; Elytis considers hini his master.

THE AXION ESTI

138
 Ode 1*

MY MOUTH wasstillinclay * andthenhenamedyou

Rosy newborn babe * with specks ofdew
And from that time he molded * the line ofyour lips
And the smoke ofyour hair * deep yet in dawn
He gave you articulation * and the lambda and epsilon 1
The airy and the in * fallible stride.

And from that same moment >f: an unknown prison

Opening in me * dun and white birds
Bickering in the aether * rose up and I felt
That the blood was for you * the tears for you
The horrible and excellent * struggle throughout the centuries
For you the enticement * and the beauty.

During the pyrrhic dance * clashing spears and swords

I heard You say to * the trees' woodwinds
Secret commands and also * pure virginal words
Words with the resplendence * ofclear green stars
And hanging over the abyss * I could recognize hovering
THE TERRIBLE CUTTING * EDGE OF YOUR SWORD/ 2

* "Birth of Liberty and Language"

i. "the lambda and epsilon": the first two letters of"Elytis" and of the words for freedom, Hel-
las, and Helen, all important themes throughout Elytis.
2. "The terrible ... sword": words adapted from the national anthem (see note 2. to Psalm II),
the first two stanzas of which are
I recognize thee by the edge Sprung from the sacred
of thy terrible sword, bones of the Greeks,
I recognize thee by the countenance valorous as at first
that with violence measures the earth. hail, hail, 0 Freedom!

THE AXION ESTI

139
First Reading*
The March to the Front

AT DAWN on St. John's Day, the day after Epiphany, we received the order to move
up to the places where there are no weekdays or Sundays. We had to take over the
lines till then held by the army ofArta, from Heimarra to Tepeleni, because they had
been fighting without a break right from the start and only half of them were left and
they couldn't hold out any more.
We had already spent twelve days in the villages behind the lines.And as our ears
again became accustomed to the sweet rustlings of the earth, and timidly we gave
ear to the barking of the dogs, or to the sound of distant church bells, it was then we
had to return to the only din we knew: slow and heavy from the cannons, dry and
quick from the machine guns.
Night after night, we marched without stopping, one behind the other, as if
blind. Slogging through the mud with great effort, we sank in up to the knee. Be-
cause it often drizzled on the roads as in our souls. And the few times we stopped to
rest, we wouldn't exchange a word, but grim and silent, with a little torch for light,
we shared out our raisins one by one. At other times, if we had the chance, we hur-
riedly loosened our clothes and furiously scratched ourselves for a long time till we
bled. Because the lice had come up as far as our necks, which was even more un-
bearable than our exhaustion.And then the whistle was heard through the darkness,
signaling us to start off again, and like pack animals we advanced as far as we could
before daybreak, when we would be targets for the airplanes. Because God had no
idea about such things as targets, and as was his wont, he always made daybreak at
the same hour.
Then, hidden in gullies, we rested our heads on their heavy side, whence no
dreams emerge.And the birds got angryat us, thinking we paid no attention to their
words-or because we had perhaps made creation ugly for no reason. We were peas-
ants of another kind, with spades and iron tools of another kind in our hands,<lamn
them.
Twelve days ago, while at the villages behind the lines, we had looked in the mir-
ror for many hours at the contours of our faces. And as our eyes again became ac-
customed to their old familiar features, and we timidly gave eye to our naked lip or
our cheeks freshened by sleep, so we saw that on the second night we had changed
somewhat, on the third night even more so, on the fourth and last, it was obvious we
were no longer the same. It was as if, you might think, we were a motley crowd with

* "Evil Confronted." "The March to the Front" is based on Elytis's personal experience in
World War II, fighting the Italians near Albania.

THE AXION ESTI

140
all generations and years mixed together, some from present times, and some from
times long past, whitened with an abundance of beard. Unsmiling chieftains with
turbans, and gigantic priests, sergeants from the wars of 1897 and 1912, axemen
swinging their axes over their shoulders, Byzantine borderguards, and shield-bear-
ers with the blood of Bulgarians and Turks still on them. All together, not speaking,
grunting side by side for innumerable years, we crossed ridges and ravines, thinking
of nothing else. Because as when continual setbacks always strike the same people
so they become used to Evil and finally change its name to Destiny or Fate-so we
advanced straight toward what we called Messed-up, as if we said Mist or Cloud.
Slogging through the mud with great effort, we sank in up to the knee. Because it of-
ten drizzled on the roads as in our souls.
And we realized that we were very near the places where there are no weekdays
or Sundays, neither sick nor hale, neither poor nor rich. Because the distant boom-
ings, something like a thunderstorm behind the mountains, kept getting louder, so
much so that we could finally make them out, slow and heavy from the cannons, dry
and quick from the machine guns.And because, more and more frequently, we came
across medics with the wounded, moving slowly from the front. Wearing armbands
with red crosses, they set down their stretchers and spat in their palms, their eyes
wild for a cigarette. And when they heard where we were heading, they shook their
heads, and began to tell horrible stories. But the only thing we paid attention to were
those voices in the darkness, rising still burning from the pitch of the pit or from the
sulphur. "Oh mother, oh mother:' And sometimes, less often, we heard choking gur-
gles, like snores, which those in the know said were the death rattle itself.
Sometimes the medics brought prisoners with them, captured only a few hours
before during the sudden attack by the patrols. Their breath smelled of wine and
their pockets were full of food tins and chocolate. We didn't have such things, be-
cause the bridges behind us were down, and our few mules were incapacitated by
snow and slippery mud.
Finally, rising smoke appeared here and there, and the first bright red flares on
the horizon.

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141
 Ode2

STILL very young I came to know * voices ofa hundred years

Not the old pine tree's creaking for * a moment in the chest offorests
Only the dog's loud barking in * the mountain whereon the men have trod
And there was smoke from low-slung houses * and the gaze ineffable
Of those in death's last agony the * turmoil of the other world

Not the quick caws ofleggy storks * lingering within the wind
Calm falls like rain and in such rain * the garden vegetables grunt softly
Only the writhing animals' * all-inarticulate stifled gasp
And two times two black circles under * neath the Holy Virgin's eyes
Within the fields ofwomen's aprons * and the fields ofburial

Only a knock upon the door * nobody at all is there

Neither a single trace of hand * is found in that thin frost of tresses
Though I have waited many years * I never seem to have got the calm
The portion that I got was short when * all my siblings shared things out
The harness with its studs ofstone the * perfidy ofsliding snakes.

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142
Psalm III

You NEVER gave me wealth

continually devastated by the races of Continents
and continually praised by their boasting!
The North received the Grapevine
and the South the Ear of Wheat
buying out the wind's course
and sacrilegiously cashing in the toil of trees
two or three times.
I knew nothing
except the thyme in the sun's pin
I felt nothing
except the waterdrop in my uncut beard
yet I laid my rough cheek on the stone's rougher cheek
century after century.
I slept on my concern for the morrow
like a soldier on his rifle.
And I explored the mercies of night
as an ascetic his God.
They set diamond in my sweat
and they secretly replaced
the virgin of my gaze
They weighed my joy and found it wanting, they said,
and crushed it underfoot like an insect.
They crushed my joy underfoot and shut it in stone
and in the end they left me the stone,
a terrible portrait of me.
They strike it with a heavy axe, they pierce it with a hardened
scalpel
They carve my stone with a bitter chisel.
And the more time erodes matter the clearer
the oracle comes out from my face:

FEAR THE WRATH OF THE DEAD

AND THE STATUES OF THE ROCKS!

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143
 Psalm IV

I ADDED UP my days and I never

found you anywhere, to hold my hand
through the roar of the cliffs and through my chaos of stars!
Some took Knowledge and others took Power
incising darkness with effort
and fitting little masks of joy and sorrow
on a ruined face.
I myself never fitted masks,
I put joy and sorrow behind me,
generously I put
Power and Knowledge behind me.
I added up my days and remained alone.
Some said: why? he too should inhabit
a home with flowerpots and a white betrothed.
Black and flame red horses kindled in me
a stubborn fire for other whiter Helens!
I yearned for another, more secret valor
and from where they hindered me I, invisible, galloped
to return the rain to the fields
and to reclaim the blood of my unburied dead!
Some said: why? he too should know
life in the eyes of someone else.
I saw no other eyes, I faced
only tears in the Void I embraced
only sudden downpours in the calm I endured.
I added up my days and did not find you
and I girt on my weapons and alone I went out
to the roar of cliffs and to my chaos of stars!

THB AXION BSTI

144
 Ode3

ALONE I governed * my sorrow

Alone I colonized * abandoned May
Alone I embayed * fragrances
On the field * in halcyon days
I fed flowers with * yellow I pastured the hills
I shot the wilder * ness with red!
I said: the knife's stab will not * be deeper than the cry
And I said: the Unjust won't be more * honest than blood!
The hand ofearthquakes * hand offamines
The hand ofenemies * the hand ofmy
Kith, they raged despoiled * devastated annihilated
Once and twice * and thrice
I was betrayed and stayed * on the plain alone
Conquered and vanquished like * a castle alone
The message I bore * endured alone!

Alone I led death * to despair

Alone I bit into * Time with stone teeth
Alone I set off * on a long
Trip like trum * pets in the aethers!
Nemesis steel and * dishonor were in my pow'r
To go with war's dust * cloud and arms
I said: with my cold-water * sword alone I'll compete
And I said: with my mind's Purity * alone I'll strike!
In spite ofearthquakes * and offamines
In spite ofenemies * in spite ofmy
Kith, I resisted * I held out was heartened was strengthened
Once and twice * and thrice
I founded my house on * memory alone
I took my halo and * wreathed myselfalone
The wheat that I pro * claimed I scythed alone!

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Second Reading*
The Mule Drivers

IN THOSE DAYS the mule drivers finally arrived where we were after three full weeks.
And they said a lot about the towns they passed through, Delvino, Hagioi Saranda,
Korytsa. 1 And they unloaded the herring and halvah, 2 trying to finish up as soon as
possible and leave. Because they were scared of the booming in the mountains and
the black beards on our ravaged faces, things they had not yet got used to.
And one of them happened to have on him some old newspapers. And surprised
we all read what we had already heard, that in the capital people were celebrating
and that they lifted the soldiers on leave from cushy posts at Preveza and Arta onto
their shoulders. And the bells tolled all day and in the evening at the theaters they
sang songs and depicted our lives for the ignorant to applaud.
Deep silence fell on us, because our souls had grown wild from months in the
wilderness. And without talking about it, we reckoned our years. And then Sergeant
Zoes 3 shed a tear and pushed away the papers with the world news, damning them
with an obscene gesture. And the rest of us said nothing and only our eyes showed
something like gratitude.
Then Lefteris, 4 rolling a cigarette with forbearance, as if he had taken on him-
self the sufferings of the World, turned and said: "Sergeant, why so resentful? Those
whose lot is herring and halvah will always return to them. And others to their end-
less account books and others to their soft beds, beds they make but have no power
over. But you should know that only he who wrestles with his inner darkness will to-
morrow have his place in the sun:' And Zoes said: "Well then, so you think I have no
wife, no fields, no worries, that I'm just sitting here guarding this godforsaken
place?" Lefteris answered him: ''A person should fear those things he doesn't love,
because they're lost from the start, even if tightly held on to. But there is no way to
lose the things of the heart, mind you, and godforsaken places work for this. Soon-
er or later, those meant to find them will find them:' Again Sergeant Zoes asked: ''And
who do you think will find them?" Then Lefteris, slowly pointing his finger, said:
"You and I will, brother, and anything else chosen by this moment listening to us
now."
And right then we heard a shell's dark whoosh coming our way. And we hit the
ground face down on the scarp because by then we knew by heart the signs of the
Invisible, and our ears could determine the exact spot where the fire would meet the

*"The Struggle for Freedom"

1. "Delvino, Hagioi Saranda, Korytsa": towns on the Albanian border.
2. "Halvah": cheap food.
3. "Zoes": a common Greek name, means "life."
4. "Lefteris": an ordinary name, means "freedom."

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ground, opening and scattering. And the fire didn't touch anyone. Only some mules
reared on their hind legs and some got frightened and ran off. And in the settling
smoke you could see the men who had brought them here with such difficulty run-
ning after them gesticulating. Faces pale, they went on unloading the herring and
the halvah, trying to finish up as soon as possible and leave. Because they were scared
of the booming in the mountains and the black beards on our ravaged faces, things
they had not yet got used to.

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 Ode4*

A SOLITARY swallow * and Spring's great worth is found

It takes a lot ofwork * to make the sun turn round
Their shoulders to the Wheels * it takes a thousand dead
It also takes the living * to offer up their blood.

God my greatest Masterworker * high in the mountains You built me

God my greatest Masterworker * You have surrounded me with sea!

The body ofdead May * the Mages took to save

And they have buried it * entombed in a sea grave
They keep the body sealed * away in a deep well
The darkness filled all the * Abyss with its sweet smell

God my greatest Masterworker * You are in Easter lilacs too

God my greatest masterworker * You smelled the Resurrection's dew!

Memory's terrible * insect emerged from earth

And wriggled like a sperm * in a dark womb ofbirth
The way a spider bites * the light it bit the light
The beaches all were shining * the open sea shone bright.

God my greatest Masterworker * You girt me round with coast and sea
God my greatest Masterworker * in the mountains You founded me!

* "Sacrifice:'"Masterworker"is after a folksong about a bridge atArta. The worker's wife must
be buried alive in it for its completion.

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 PsalmV*

My FOUNDATIONS in the mountains

and the peoples bear the mountains on their shoulders
and on them memory burns
neverburnt bush.
Memory of my people they call you Pindus and call you Athos. 1
Time is distressed
and hangs the days by their feet
emptying out with a thud the bones of the humbled. 2
Who, how, when did they ascend the abyss?
Which, whose, how many armies?
The sky's face turns and my enemies fled.
Memory of my people they call you Pindus and call you Athos.
You alone recognize the man by his heel
You alone speak from the stone's cutting edge.
You sharpen the features of the saints
and you draw Easter lilacs
to the rim of the centuries' water!
You touch my mind and the infant of Spring hurts!
You chastise my hand and it whitens in the dark!
Always you pass through fire to reach the glow
Always you pass through the glow
to reach the high snow-resplendent mountains. 3
But what are mountains? Who and what in the mountains?
My foundations in the mountains
and the peoples bear the mountains on their shoulders
and on them the memory burns
neverburnt bush!

*"Guardians of the Mountain"

i. "Pindus ... Athos": two great mountains, the first with heroic associations, the second with
spiritual.
2. "the bones of the humbled": Elytis is remembering David's song of repentance, Psalm 51,
the commonest (at least four times a day) in Orthodox worship.
3. "snow-resplendent mountains": quoted from Sun the First, III

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 Psalm VI

THE POET of clouds and waves sleeps within me

His dark lips on the tempest's teat
and his soul with the sea's kick
at the feet of the mountain!
A biting Thracian wind descends uprooting oaks
Small boats at the cape's turning
suddenly list and vanish.
They reappear high in the clouds
on the other side of the deep.
Seaweed dings to the anchors
to the beards of sad saints.
Beautiful beams around the face
vibrate the sea's halo.
Old men fasting turn their empty eyes there
And women clothe immaculate whitewash
with their black shadows
with them I stand and move my hand
Poet of clouds and waves!
With them I dip my brushes in a humble
can of paint and then paint!
The new hulls
the black and golden icons!
Be our aid and shelter Saint Kanaris
Be our aid and shelter Saint Miaoulis
Be our aid and shelter Saint Manto! 1

1. Kanaris, Miaoulis, and Manto were not saints but heroes of the 1821 War oflndependence.

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 Psalm VII*

THEY CAME
my enemies innumerable times
dressed as "friends"
trampling the ancient soil.
And the soil never fit their heels.
They brought
The Sage the Founder and the Geometer,
Bibles of letters and numbers,
absolute Subjugation and Power,
dominating the ancient light.
And the light never fit their coverings.
Neither was the bee fooled into starting its golden play;
nor the zephyr into swelling the white aprons.
They erected and founded
on peaks, in valleys, in ports
mighty towers and villas
wood and other boats,
Laws instituted for their own benefit,
adjusted to the ancient measure.
And the measure never fit their thinking.
Neither did a god's trace leave a mark on their souls;
nor did a fairy's glance take their speech. 1
They arrived
my enemies innumerable times
dressed as "friends"
offering the ancient gifts.
And their gifts were nothing
but iron and fire.
To expectant open hands
only guns and iron and fire.
Only guns and iron and fire.

*"The Enemy Without"

1."Fairy's glance ... speech": In folk tradition, if you look at a fairy, she'll steal your voice.

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 Psalm VIII

THEY CAME
with their gold braid
fowls of the North and beasts of the East!
And dividing my flesh in two
and finally quarreling over my liver
they left.
"For them;' they said, "the smoke of sacrifice,
and for us the smoke of fame,
,,
amen.
And we all heard and recognized
the echo sent from the past.
We recognized the echo and again
we sang with spiritless voice:
For us, for us, the bloody iron
and the triple-wrought betrayal.
For us the dawn in copper
and teeth clenched to the final hour
the deceit and the invisible net.
For us crawling along the ground
the secret oath in the dark
the unfeeling eyes
and never any Recompense.
Brothers they fooled us!
"For them;' they said, "the smoke of sacrifice,
and for us the smoke of fame,
amen:'
But with your word you lit
the lantern of the star in our hand, mouth of the innocent
portal of Paradise!
We see the power of smoke in the future
a plaything of your breath
and its dominion and reign!

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 Odes

WITH THE star-lantern I * went out into the skies

Into the chill ofmeadows * and the world's only coast
Where can I find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

And myrtles sad with sorrows * silvered over with sleep

Sprinkled on my face and * I blow and go alone
Where can I find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

0 Guide of lightbeams and * Magician ofbedchambers

Charlatan, you who know * the future, speak to me
Where I can find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

My girls are mourning for * the centuries and aeons

My boys are bearing rifles * and yet they do not know
Where can I find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

And hundred-handed nights * throughout the firmament

Agitate my entrails * This pain oh how it burns
Where can I find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

With the star-lantern I * go roaming through the skies

Into the chill ofmeadows * and the world's only coast
Where can I find my soul * the four-leaf teardrop!

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Third Reading*
The Great Exodus

IN THOSE DAYS the boys met together secretly and, because bad news kept increasing
in the capital, took the decision to get out into the streets and squares with only one
thing remaining to them: a hand's length of space beneath their open shirts, with the
black hair and the sun's little cross. Where Spring had its state and its authority.
And because the day was near when the nation celebrated the other Rising, they
chose that day for the Exodus. And they went out early into the sunlight, with their
fearlessness unfurled wide as a flag, the young men with swollen feet they called
bums. And they were followed by many men and women and the wounded with
their bandages and crutches. And suddenly you could see their faces so lined, that
you might think many days had gone by in a short hour.
The Others, however, hearing of such audacity, were upset exceedingly.And cal-
culating their possessions with their eyes three times, they took the decision to get
out into the streets and the squares with only one thing remaining to them: an arm's
length of fire beneath the iron, with the black gunbarrels and the sun's teeth. Where
neither shoot nor blossom ever shed a tear. And they fired at random, their eyelids
shut in despair. And Spring possessed them. As if there were no other road on the
entire earth for Spring to take except this one, and speechless they had taken the same
road, gazing far off, beyond the edge of hopelessness, at the Serenity that they would
become, the young men with swollen feet they called bums, and the men and women
and the wounded with their bandages and crutches.
And many days went by in one short hour. And the beasts slaughtered many,
and arrested others. And the next day they put thirty men against the wall.

*"The Heroic Dead:' This piece describes the first important resistance to the Nazis in occu-
pied Athens, occurring on March 25 (Independence Day), 1942, when students brought lau-
rel wreathes to 1821 War oflndependence heroes.

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 Ode6

0 s UN ofJustice in the mind * and you 0 gloriJYing myrtle

do not oh I implore you * do not forget my country!

It has high mountains eagle-shaped * and rows ofvines on its volcanoes

and houses very white * for neighboring the blue!

Though touching Asia on one side * and brushing Europe on the other
it stands there all alone * in aether and in sea!

It's not a foreigner's idea * nor is it any kinsman's love

but everywhere a mourning * and light is merciless!

I turn my bitter hands that hold * the Thunderbolt in back of Time

I summon my old friends * call them with threats and blood!

But all the blood has gone for lost * and all the threats been quarried now
and winds and winds all turn * the one against the other!

0 sun ofJustice in the mind * and you 0 gloriJYing myrtle

do not oh I implore you * do not forget my country!

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 Psalm IX*

HE is
our Judas always invisible
Seven gates cover him
and seven armies fatten in his service.
Aerial machines kidnap him
and heavy with furs and tortoise shell,
they set him in Elysees and White Houses.
And he has no language because they all are his-
and he has no woman because they all are his-
the Almighty!
The naive admire
and near the glow of crystal those in black smile,
and half-naked tigresses
heart-leap in Lycabettus' 1 lairs!
And no course for the sun to take its fame into the future,
And no Judgment Day, because
we, brothers, we are Judgment Day
and ours the hand that shall be deified-
casting the silver pieces in their face!

*"The Bourgeois"
1."Lycabettus": steep hill in Athens.

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PsalmX

THE YOUNG Alexandrians mocked me to my face:

Look, they said, at that naive tourist of the century!
Who insensitive
exults while we lament
and when we exult
he sulks for no reason.
He bypasses our cries with indifference,
and serious and alone,
with his ear to the stone he attends to
what's invisible to us.
With neither friend
nor supporter,
trusting only in his own body
and seeking the great mystery in the sun's thorny leaves,
this is he
outcast of the agoras of the century!
Because he has no brains
and gets no profit from the tears of others
and on the bush burning our anguish
he merely deigns to urinate.
The antichrist and callous demonist of the century!
When we all mourn
he wears the sun.
And when we all scoff,
he wears ideas.
And when we proclaim peace
he wears knives.
To my face the young Alexandrians mocked me!

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 Ode?*

THI s world this world * is the same world

Ofsuns and ofdust clouds * ofbustle and ofvespers
Weaver ofconstellations * silverer ofmoss
At waning ofmemory * at exiting ofdreams
This the same world * is this world
Cymbal cymbal crash * and vain distant laughter!

This world this world * is the same world

Plunderer ofpleasures * ravisher offountains
Above the Floods * beneath Typhoons
Hooked and humpbacked * shaggy russet
By night with the syrinx * by day with the high harp
On cities' macadam * in the jibsails offields
This platycephalic * this macrocephalic
This willing * unwilling
This Solomon * and Haggith's son. 1

This world this world * is the same world

Of ebb tide and orgasm * ofremorse and cloudiness
Inventor ofzodiacs * daredevil ofdomes
At the ecliptic's edge * and Creation's far reach
This the same world * is this world
Brass horn brass horn blast * and vain distant cloud!

*"Beauty and Distress"

1."Haggith's son": Adonijah, who, plotting for the throne, was put to death by his younger
brother Solomon. See I Kings 1:13-25.

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Fourth Reading*
The Vacant Lot with the Nettles

ONE OF THAT WINTER'S SUNLESS days, on a Saturday morning, a throng of au-

tomobiles and motorcycles surrounded Lefteris's 1 block, with its tin window shut-
ters full of holes and runnels of kitchen water in the street. And with wild shouts
those persons came with faces cast in lead and hair straight as straw. And they or-
dered all the men to gather in the vacant lot with the nettles. And they were armed
to the teeth with gunbarrels leveled at the crowd. And the boys got very frightened,
because almost all of them happened to have some secret in their pocket or in their
soul. But there was no way out, and making a virtue of necessity, they lined up and
those persons with leaden faces and straw hair and blunt black boots put barbed wire
around them. And they cut the clouds in two till sleet began to fall, and their jaws
barely kept their teeth from chattering hard enough to break.
Then, from the other side, He appeared approaching with slow steps, with his
Concealed Face, 2 who when he lifted his finger the hours shuddered on the big clock
of angels. And whomever he happened to stand in front of, the others seized at once
by the hair and pushed him to the ground to be trampled. And then the time came
for him to stand in front of Lefteris. But Lefteris did not move. Merely raised his eyes
slowly and looked so far off, far into his future-that the other one felt it as a shove
and bent back nearly falling. And in a rage he started to lift his black hood, to spit in
Lefteris's face. But again Lefteris did not move.
At that moment, the Great Foreigner3 with three stripes on his collar, following
behind, put his hand on his hips and guffawed: look here, he said, look here, at these
persons who want to change the course of the world! And without knowing that he
was speaking the truth the poor fellow struck Lefteris in the face with his whip three
times. And for the third time Lefteris did not move. Then, blind with rage because
his power was so ineffectual, the other, not knowing what he was doing, pulled out
his revolver and shot Lefteris straight through the right ear.
And the children got very frightened and the persons with leaden faces and
straw hair and blunt black boots turned pale. Because the poor houses quaked back
and forth and in many places the tarpaper fell off and in the distance, behind the
sun, weeping women appeared kneeling in a vacant lot full of nettles and clotted
black blood. While the big clock of angels chimed exactly twelve.

*"Martyrdom"
i. "Lefteris": see note 4 to "Second Reading:'
2. "Concealed Face": a neighborhood traitor, wearing a black mask to protect his identity.
3. "Great Foreigner": the SS officer in charge.

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 Odes*

I TURNED MY EYES *filled with tears

toward the window
And looking out * upon the valley's
snowcapped trees
Brothers, I said * one day they will
disgrace these too
Blackhooded men in * the next century
prepare their nooses

I bit into day * and not one drop

ofgreen blood dripped
I screamed at the gates * my voice took on
murderers' sadness
In earth'.s center * the nucleus appeared
which keeps darkening
And then behold * the sunbeam became
the thread ofDeath!

0 bitter women * with your black clothes

virgins and mothers
Who at the fountain * were giving water
to angels' nightingales
Death happened * to give you also
his handful of it
And from the wells * you draw cries of
the unjustly killed

Fire and rancor * do not touch that

my people go hungry
They loaded God's * wheat on high trucks
and it is gone
In the desolate * and empty city
just the hand that's left
Will write with paint * on the big walls
BREAD AND FREEDOM

*This ode is based on the "Encomia:' Orthodoxy's best-loved tune, sung on Good Friday. It
begins, "O my sweet springtime I my sweetest child I where has thy beauty set?"

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Night blew, the houses * were extinguished
and it's late in my soul
Wherever I knock * nobody hears
memory kills me
Brothers, it says * black hours are coming
as time will show
The joys of men * have defiled
the guts ofmonsters

I turned my eyes * filled with tears

toward the window
I screamed at the gates * my voice took on
murderers' sadness
In earth's center * the nucleus appeared
which keeps darkening
And then behold * the sunbeam became
the thread ofDeath!

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 Psalm XI

WHEREVER vou are, brothers, I cry,

wherever you set foot,
open up a fountain,
your own Mavroyenis fountain. 1
Water is good
and the hand of noon that holds
the sun in its open palm is of stone.
The flow is cool and I shall rejoice.
May the speech that knows no lie
recite my mind in a loud voice,
and may my viscera be legible.
I can't stand it,
the gallows overwhelmed my trees
and my eyes blacken.
I can't bear it
even the crossroads I once knew have become dead ends.
Seljuk club-bearers 2 lie in wait.
Vulture-headed Hagans 3 are plotting.
Dog-fornicators and corpse-eaters and Erebus-addicts
fill the future with offal.
Wherever evil finds you brothers,
wherever your mind clouds over,
. invoke Dionysios Solomos4
and invoke Alexandros Papadiamantis. 5
Their speech that knows no lie
will bring rest to a martyr's face
with a little glaucous dye on the lips.

1. "Mavroyenis fountain": Nicholas Mavroyenis rose to high position in the Ottoman Empire.
In 1777 he gave three fine marble fountains to his home island, Paros, where they are still.
2. "Seljuk club-bearers": Seljuks were Turkish tribes that founded the Ottoman Empire.
3. "Hagans": leaders of barbarian hordes that invaded Byzantium.
4. "Dionysios Solomos": See note 2 to Psalm II.
5. "Alexandros Papadiamantis": Elytis (along with Cavafy and Seferis) considers Papadia-
mantis (1851-1911), who came from Skiathos, to be Greece's greatest fiction writer. Elytiswrote
a book about him.

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Water is good
and the hand of noon that holds
the sun in its open palm is of stone.
Wherever you set foot, brothers, I cry,
open up
a fountain open up
your own Mavroyenis fountain!

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163
 Psalm XII

AND DEEP midnight in the rice paddies of sleep

no breath of air and the Moon's evil mosquito tortures me!
I wrestle with the sheets and in vain
I try out my thick eyes in the darkness:
0 aged bearded winds
guards and key-keepers of my ancient seas
you who possess the secret
draw a dolphin for my eyes
For my eyes draw a dolphin
and let it be swift and Greek, and let it be eleven o'clock
Let it pass by and wipe clean the altar stone
and change the meaning of martyrdom
Let its white seafoam leap up
to drown the Falcon and the Priest!
Let it pass by and unbind the Cross's form
and return its wood to the trees
Let the deep creaking still remind me
that he who I am exists!
Let its flat tail groove my memory
with a way that has no wake
And leave me in the sun again
like an ancient pebble of the Cyclades!
I wrestle with the sheets and in vain
try out my blind hands in the dark:
0 aged bearded winds
guards and key-keepers of my ancient seas
you who possess the secret
strike my heart with the Trident
and cross it with the dolphin 1
The sign I truly am is myself
in my first youth let me ascend
to the sky's azure-and there let me hold dominion!

i. "Trident": A popular ancient and neoclassical design, the trident entwined with the dolphin
here replaces Christ's sacrificial cross.

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164
 Psalm XIII*

INIQUITIES defiled my hands, how can I open them?

Criminal escorts filled my eyes, where can I look?
Sons of men, what can I say?
The earth bears horrors and the soul worse horrors!
Well done my first youth and indomitable lip
who taught the storm's sea pebbles
and in squalls, you talked back to the thunder
Well done my first youth!
You threw so much earth on my roots, that even my thought
flourished!
So much light in my blood, that even my love acquired
the sky's dominion and the meaning.
I am pure from end to end
and in the hands of Death a useless utensil
and in the claws of boors, bad prey
Sons of men, what shall I fear?
Take my guts, I have sung!
Take my sea with its white northwinds,
the wide window filled by lemon trees
the many bird songs, and the one girl
whose joy though I only touched her was enough for me
take them, I have sung!
Take my dreams, how could you read them?
Take my thought, where could you say it?
I am pure from end to end.
Kissing with my mouth I enjoyed the virgin's body.
Blowing with my mouth I colored the sea's hide.
I enriched all my ideas with islands.
On my consciousness I dripped lemon.

*"The Senses Beatified"

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165
 Psalm XIV*

TEMPLES with the sky's schema

and beautiful girls
who with grapes between your teeth were apt for us!
Birds annihilating the weight on our hearts on high
and ample azure that we loved!
They're gone they're gone
July with its luminous shirt
and stony August with its small uneven stairs. 1
They're gone
and in the sea depth's eyes the starfish remained uninterpreted
and in the depths of the eyes the sunset remained undelivered!
And the prudence of men closed the borders.
It walled in the world's sides
and on the sky's place raised the nine ramparts
and on the altar stone it slaughtered the body
and posted many guards at the exits.
And the prudence of men closed the borders.
Temples with the sky's schema
and beautiful girls
who with grapes between your teeth were apt for us!
Birds annihilating the weight on our hearts on high
and ample azure that we loved!
Gone gone
the Northwester with its pointed sandal
and the thoughtless Northeaster with its slanting red sails. 2
They're gone
and deep in the ground clouds formed
raising black gravel
and thunder, the wrath of the dead
and terrible statues of the boulders slowly
turned breast forward
again, creaking in the wind!

*"The Senses Reinstated"

1. "small uneven stairs": quoted from "The Concert of Hyacinths" XIV in Orientations.
2. "slanting red sails": from Sun the First, XIII.

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166
 Ode9

LEAVING theclouds * Thestatuesofboulders

behind them voyage
Breast forward as if * All fu,ture things
to push to the winds
Lest the vultures catch their scent * and rush on them!

With the bell tolling * The village flocks

death came down
To the slopes fadng * And a voice disturbed
the sea the winds
Hunger my boys has made * our soul grow dark!

The nations' hidden * Prepare metal

factories from wheat
They nourish the beast they * And look its mouth
don't want gapes larger
Until nobody remains * and the bones creak!

But first in the quaking * Hades roared as if

valley moaning
The houses' roofs * And then the unhoped-for
came unfixed miracle
Women listening silently * to their infants' crying!

The life that tasted * Naked came back like

death the sun
Alas not having * This life that squandered
anything everything
Fixed a shining poppy * onto the ruins!

If the hawk that rent * Would give us back

the sheep its voice
Our ear to the grass we * How the wrath of the dead
should hear is trained
To grasp the darkness and point * out the other side!

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167
Fifth Reading*
The Courtyard of Sheep

MY PEOPLE said: I acted according to the justice I was taught and lo I am weary of
waiting naked for centuries outside the closed gate of the courtyard of sheep. The
flock knew my voice and leapt and bleated to my every whistle. But other men, of-
ten the very same who praised my perseverance, jumping down from trees and walls,
first set foot in the middle of the courtyard of sheep. My people sighed and lo, I al-
ways naked and with no flock. And on its teeth the ancient hunger gleamed and its
soul creaked on its bitterness the way a despairing man's boot creaks on the gravel.
Then these men who know much, hearing such creaking, became frightened.
Because they knew all signs in detail and often from miles away, they read them for
their own benefit. And straightway they put on deceiving sandals. And one half
pulling against the other half, they said these words: worthy and good your works
and here as you see is the closed gate of the courtyard of sheep. Raise your hands and
we are with you and the fire and iron are our concern. Have no concern for homes,
no fear for families, and never retreat because of the voice of a son or father or
younger brother. Should one of you happen to become concerned or to pity or to
retreat, he should know: on his head shall the curse fall and the fire we brought and
the iron.
And before they finished their speech the weather began to change, far off in the
clouds' blackness and nearby in the herd of men. As if a low wind passed moaning
and knocked the bodies down empty, without a drop of memory. Heads bruised and
voiceless turned upwards, but hands deep in pockets, gripping a piece of iron, iron
of fire or of another kind with a sharp point and acute edge. And one group would
go for the other, not acknowledging each other. And the son aimed at his father and
the elder brother at the younger. So that many homes remained in the middle, and
many women two or three times in a row had to dress in black. And if you tried to
go out for a bit, nothing. Only wind wailing through the roofbeams and in the few
burnt stones the smoke here and there herding the corpses of the slain.
Thirty-three months and more the Evil lasted. And they knocked open the gate
of the courtyard of sheep. And no sheep's voice was heard except under the knife.
And no gate's voice, except when it leaned into the last flames to bum. Because this
people of mine is the gate and this people of mine is the courtyard and the flock of
sheep.

*"Lessons from Destruction's Fire." This is a parable based on the horrific experiences of the
Greek civil war that followed World War II.

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 Ode 10*

THE BLOOD oflove * empurpled me

And neverseen * joys shaded me
I corroded * in the south-
* windofmen
My Distant Mother * Rose Unwithering1

Out at sea they * awaited me

Their three-masted * boats fired at me
Was it sin for * me too to
* have a love
My Distant Mother * Rose Unwithering

One time in Ju * ly her large eyes

Opened halfway * inside my heart
To illumine * virgin life
* onemoment
My Distant Mother * Rose Unwithering

And since then the * aeons' rages

Have turned against * me shouting out
"May he who saw * thee live in
* blood and stone"
My Distant Mother * Rose Unwithering

Again I looked * like my country

Mid stones I blos * somed and I grew
And I pay back * murderers'
* blood with light
My Distant Mother * Rose Unwithering

*"Voices from Love's Blood"

1."Rose Unwithering": an epithet of the Virgin.

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 Psalm XV

Goo YOU wanted me thus and look, I reciprocate

I did not give forgiveness
I did not consent to supplication
Like a pebble I endured the wilderness.
What, what, what else remains for me?
I guide the flocks of stars into your arms
and before I could do anything, Dawn,
as you wanted, drew them
away in its nets!
I establish hills with castles
and seas with fruit trees in the wind
and the sunset's bell, as you wanted,
slowly drinks them!
I raise grass as if I cried with all my brains
and look it droops again
because ofJuly's heat,
as you wanted!
What then, what else, what new remains for me?
Behold you speak and I am proved true.
I sling the stone and it hits me.
I deepen mines and I work the heavens.
I hunt birds and I get lost in their weight.
God you wanted me thus and look, I reciprocate.
The elements you are,
days and nights,
suns and stars, storms and calm,
I subvert into order and turn against
my own death
as you wanted!

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Psalm XVI

EARLY I woke sensual pleasures

early I ignited my poplar
hand out front I advanced into the sea
alone there I set it:
you blew and tempests encircled me
one by one you took the birds from me-
God you were calling me so how could I leave?
I looked into the future at the months and years
that will return without me
and I bit myself so deeply
that I felt my blood slowly well up
and drip from my future.
I dug the ground when I was guilty
and trembling I lifted the victim in my arms
and talked to it gently
that its eyes opened slowly and trickled dew
on the ground where I was guilty.
I threw darkness on the bed oflove
with the things of the world naked in my mind
and I shot my sperm so far
that the women turned slowly in the sun and ached
and gave birth to visible things again.
God you were calling me so how could I leave?
Early I woke sensual pleasures
early I ignited my poplar
hand out front I advanced into the sea
alone there I set it:
you blew and my entrails got excited
one by one the birds returned to me!

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 Ode 11

I SHALL tonsure myself* theMonkofverdantthings

Modestly I shall serve * the order ofthe birds
At night's end I shall come * to matins of the Fig Tree
Drenched with dew * to bring there in my apron
The cyan * the rosy and the mauve
And there ignite the brave * water-
Droplets * I more brave.

For icons I shall have * maidens immaculate

Who are dressed only in * the linen of the sea
And I shall pray that my * own purity assume
The instinct * ofmyrtle and beasts' muscles
To drown in * my vigorous entrails
The sordid the surly and * faint for-
Ever * I more vigorous.

Times of many transgressions * ofprofit and ofhonor

Of remorses of beatings * these times shall come to pass
Then raging the Buceph * alus1 of blood will charge
And he'll kick * my longings my white longings
And yes my * valor my love my light
And when he smells their power * he will
Whinny * I more powerful.

But then at the sixth hour * oflilies lifting up

Just when my judgment will * effect a breach in Time
The eleventh commandment * will emerge from my eyes
It will be * this world or won't the Birth
Dei * ft.cation the Forever
That I'll have proclaimed with * my soul's
Justice * I more just.

1. "Bucephalus": Alexander the Great's warhorse.

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Sixth Reading
Prophetic

MANY YEARS after Sin which they called Virtue in the churches and which they
blessed. The tempest that man's mind shall give birth to sweeping away relics of old
stars and cobwebbed corners of the sky. And Creation paying for the works of the
ancient Rulers shall shudder. Turmoil shall fall on Hades, and the planking shall sag
under the great pressure of the sun. Which first shall hold back its beams as a sign
that it is time for dreams to take revenge. And then it shall speak, and say: exiled Poet,
say, what do you see in your century?
- I see the nations once arrogant, given over to the wasp and to sorrel.
- I see axes in the air splitting busts of Emperors and Generals.
- I see merchants stooping to collect the profit from their own corpses.
- I see the sequence of secret meanings.

Manyyears after the Sin which they called Virtue in the churches and which they
blessed. But before that, behold, there will be the handsome Phillips and Roberts
who admire themselves narcissisticallywhere three roads meet. They shall wear their
rings reversed and they shall comb their hairwith a nail.And they shall decorate their
chests with skulls, to tempt loose women.And these women shall be dazzled and give
in. So that the word may become true, that the day is dose when beauty shall be giv-
en over to the flies of the Agora. And the body of the whore, having nothing else to
envy, shall be outraged. And the whore shall become the denouncer of the wise and
the mighty, using as a witness the sperm that she served loyally. And she shall shake
off the curse, stretching out her arm to the East and crying: exiled Poet, say, what do
you see in your century?
- I see the colors ofHymmetus 1 at the sacred base of our New Civil Code.
- I see little Myrto the whore from Sikinos a stone statue raised in the Agora square
with the Fountains and rampant Lions.
- I see the ephebes and I see the girls in the annual Lottery of Couples.
- I see on high in the aethers the Erectheum2 of Birds.

The tempest that man's mind shall give birth to sweeping away relics of old stars
and cobwebbed corners of the sky. But before that, behold, generations shall move
the plough upon the barren earth. And secretly the Rulers shall take stock of their
human merchandise, declaring wars.And the Policeman and Military Judge shall be
satiated. Leaving the gold to the unseen, and they shall collect the wages of insult and
torture. And big ships shall hoist their flags, marching songs shall advance along the

1. "Hymmetus": mountain overlooking Athens, traditionally renowned for its violet hues.
2. "Erectheum": the beautiful temple on the Acropolis.

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173
roads, balconies shall strew flowers on the Victor. Who shall live in the odor of
corpses. And near him the mouth of the tomb shall open up the darkness according
to his measure, crying: exiled Poet, say, what do you see in your century?
- I see the Military Judges burn like candles, on the big Easter table.
- I see the policemen offer their blood, a sacrifice to the purity of the heavens.
- I see the continual revolution of plants and flowers.
- I see the cannonbearers of Eros.

And Creation paying for the works of the ancient Rulers shall shudder. Turmoil
shall fall on Hades, and the planking shall sag under the great pressure of the sun.
But before that, behold, the young shall sigh and their blood shall grow old for no
reason. Prisoners with shaved heads shall strike their mess-kits on the bars. And all
the factories shall empty out, and then they shall fill up again because of requisitions,
to produce dreams conserved in thousands of tin cans, and bottled natures of a thou-
sand different varieties. And pale years shall come and years weak in their bandages.
And each shall have a few grams of happiness. And the things in him shall already
be beautiful ruins. Then the Poet, having no other exile where he can lament, pour-
ing out the health of the storm from his open chest, shall return to stand amid the
beautiful ruins. And the last of men shall speak his first word, that the grass grow tall,
and the woman emerge from his side like a sunbeam. And again he shall worship the
woman and shall lay her on the grass, according to the order of things. And dreams
shall take revenge, and they shall sow generations forever and ever!

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 Ode 12*

OPEN my mouth * and the sea rejoices

I
And it carries my * words to its dark caves
And then the sea whispers * the words to little seals
Who weep at night * for men's troubles.

I incise my veins * and the dreams turn crimson

And they become hoops * in kids' neighborhoods
And become sheets for girls * who secretly keep watch
At night to hear * love's miracles.

Honeysuckle dizzies * and I go to my garden

And bury the corpses * of my secret dead
And I cut the golden * cord of their betrayed stars
So they may fall * in the abyss.

The hard iron rusts * and I punish its aeon

I who suffered the * many piercing points
And from violets and * narcissi I fashion
A brand new knife * fit for Heroes.

I lay bare my chest * and the winds are unleashed

And they sweep out the * ruins and spoiled souls
And they clear away the * earth's thick cover ofclouds
So to reveal * Meadows of Bliss!

*This ode is based on the Sunday orthro (matins) service, which is also sung before the Salu-
tations (see note to "Friday, 3" in the Diary, and to "What One Loves [Aegean Route]" in The
Little Seafarer). It begins:
I shall open my mouth and it will be filled with spirit
and I shall bring forth a word to the Royal Mother
and I shall be seen joyfully celebrating
and rejoicing I shall sing her miracles.

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 Psalm.XVII

I'M ON MY way now to a far and sinless country.

Now I'm followed by featherlight creatures
with polar iridescence in their hair
and meek goldgleaming on their skin.
I go through the grass, my knee for prow
and my breath chases away the last wisps of sleep
from the face of the earth.
And the trees march alongside me, against the wind.
I see great mysteries and paradoxes:
Helen's crypt a fountain.
The sign of the Cross the dolphin Trident.
The unholy barbed wire a white gate.
That I'll pass through in glory.
The words that betrayed me and the beatings having
become myrtle and palm fronds:
Hosanna ringing to the coming one!
I see deprivation as the pleasure of fruit.
Years of wrath behind iron bars
as sloped olive groves with blue between their fingers.
And Marina's depth, an endless shore,
wet with the witchery of beautiful eyes.
Where I shall walk pure.
The tears that betrayed me and my humiliations having
become breezes and birds of perpetual daylight:
Hosanna ringing to the coming one! 1
I'm on my way now to a far and sinless country.

1. "Hosanna ... coming one": Refers to Palm Sunday; see John 12:i2-13.

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 Psalm XVIII

I'M ON MY way now to a far and unwrinkled country.

Now cyan girls follow me
and little stone horses
with the sun's small wheel on their wide foreheads.
Generations of myrtle recognize me
since I trembled on the water's icon-screen,
crying, holy, holy. 1
Conqueror of Hades and savior of Eros,
he is the Prince of Lilies. 2
And from those Cretan waftings,
I was painted again for a moment.
For the crocus to get justice from the aethers.
In whitewash I now enclose
and trust my true Laws.
Blessed, I say, the strong who decipher the Immaculate.
For their lips the intoxicating nipple,
on the volcanos' breast and the virgins' vine.
Let them follow in my steps!
I'm on my way now to a far and unwrinkled country.
Now the hand of Death
makes a gift of Life
and sleep does not exist.
The noon bell strikes
and slowly on the sun-red stones these letters are carved:
NOW and FOREVER and AXION ESTI. 3
Forever and ever and now and now the birds sing
AXION ESTI the price paid.

1. "holy, holy": see Revelation 4:8.

2. "Prince of Lilies": a Minoan fresco showing a plumed man in a lily field.
3. "NOW and FOREVER and AXION ESTI": words frequent in Orthodox worship. This is
the poem's climax. Here at last are beauty and justice, where reality, poetry, and Greece are
one.

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 The Gloria

"The Gloria" contains three metrical sections of praise for the world. The first and third sec-
tions contain 6 quatrains + i triplet + 6 quatrains + i triplet + 5 quatrains + 7 couplets; the
middle section symmetrically expands this. There are further rhythmical and rhyming bind-
ings. The couplets that conclude the first section "hail" the girl Poetry, who is savior and kore.
The second section's couplets heroize the poet. The third's chant the poem's overriding theme,
"now" and "forever:' These sections are based on the Acathist Hymn (see notes to "Friday," 3
in the Diary, and to "The Traveling Bag [Aegean Route]" in The Little Seafarer), which con-
tains i56 lines praising the Virgin, all of which begin with hail.
'•
,:~
 AXION ESTI the light and the first
wish of man incised in stone
the beast's vitality that guides the sun
the plant that warbled and day came to be

The land that dives and lifts its back

a stone horse the sea rides
myriads oflittle cyan voices
the great white head of Poseidon

AXION ESTI the Mermaid's hand

that holds the schooner 1 as if to save it
And make it a votive 2 to the winds
as if to leave it and then again no

The little heron of the church

nine in the morning like bergamot
a pebble refined down in the deep
plantations and roofs of the glaucous sky

THE LEADING WINDS who officiate

who raise the sea like the Mother of God
who blow and the oranges light up
who whistle to the mountains and they come

Beardless novices of the storm

runners who covered the miles of sky
Hermeses with their pointed sunhats
and with the caduceus of black smoke

Maistros, Levantes, Garbis

Pounentes, Graigos, Sirocco
Tramountana, Ostria3
AxION ESTI the wooden table
the blond wine with the mark of the sun
water playing along the ceiling
the corner's philodendron on duty all day

i. "Mermaid's hand ... schooner": a folk motif that sometimes decorates fishing cai"ques.
2. "votive": Greeks hang votive plaques on icons that prove helpful.
3. "Maistros ... Ostria": common names of winds.

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 Stone walls and waves hand in hand
a foot that gathered wisdom in the sand
a cicada that persuaded a thousand others
consciousness brilliant like a summer

AxION ESTI the sun's heat hatching

the beautiful rocks under the bridge
children's shit with green flies
a sea that's boiling endlessly

The sixteen deckhands that haul in nets

a slow-sailing seagull never landing
the masterless voices of the wilderness
a shadow's passage through the wall

THE ISLANDS with boats orange and black

islands with a Zeus's column-drum
the islands with their deserted boatyards
islands with drinkable blue volcanoes

Luffing jibsails in the summer wind

Sailing with a following southwester
foaming from one end to another
with purple pebbles and heliotropes

Siphnos, Amorgos, Alonnesos

Thasos, Ithaca, Santorini
Kos, Ios, Sikinos1

AxION ESTI Myrto standing

on the stone bench facing the sea
like a beautiful eight or a water pitcher
holding her sunhat in one hand

Noon porous noon all white

a featherdown of sleep ascending
dulled gold within the pylons
and the red horse who is escaping

i. "Siphnos ... Sikinos": names of Aegean islands.

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 Hera she of the ancient tree trunk
the laurel grove boundless and light-devouring
a house like an anchor of the deep
Aunt Penelope twisting her distaff

The other bank's bosphorus of birds

a citron that poured out the sky
the glaucous hearing half under the sea
longshaded whispers of nymphs and maples

AxION ESTI celebrating the memory

of Saints Cyricus and Julitta1
a miracle burning threshing floors in the heavens
priests and birds singing the hail:

HAIL to thee Burning and hail Verdant

Hail Unrepentant with the prow's sword

Hail who steppest and the footprints vanish

Hail who wakest and miracles happen

Hail to thee Wild in the paradise of depths

Hail Saint of the wilderness of islands

Hail Mother of Dreams and hail Pelagic

Hail Anchorbearer and Star-Quintessence

Hail with loosened hair gilding the wind

Hail demon-tamer with lovely voice

Hail who formest the Missals of Gardens

Hail who fittest the belt of the Serpent

Hail to thee brilliant sword and modest

Hail girl prophetic and daedalic

i."Saints Cyricus and Julitta'': Cyricus was Julitta's son. They were martyred when he was
three, during the persecutions of Diocletian (r. 284-305). Alexander, an abbot or provincial
governor of Tarsus in Cilicia, tried to win over the boy with flattery to conjole him, but Cyri-
cus, lisping the name of Christ, kicked him in the belly; so the tyrant flung him down the steps
of the judgment seat and burst his head open. His mother died after many tortures.

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183
 AXION ESTI the soil that raises
a smell of thunder as if from sulphur
the bottom of the mountain where the dead
flourish as flowers of tomorrow

The never hesitating law of instinct

the pulse the fast player of life
the clot of blood the sun's double
and ivy the high-jumper of winters

AXION ESTI the scarab-knocker

the reckless tooth of the sun in the chill
April who felt its sex changing
the fountain's bud about to open

The pushcart tilting on its side

a goldbug that set fire to the future
the water's invisible aorta pulsating
so to keep the gardenia alive

THE FLOWERS nourished by Nostalgia

the trembling flowers infants of rain
the four-legged little ones on the footpath
the high to the suns and reverie-swayed

The modest with red engagement rings

the swaggering on horseback through the meadows
and those wrought in a clear sky
the contemplative and inlaid with chimaeras

The Lily, the Rose, the Jasmine

the Campion, the Lilac, the Hyacinth
the Violet, the Daffodil, the Aster

Ax ION ESTI the cloud on the grass

the lizard's slit on the wet ankle
the deep gaze ofMnesarete 1 that
though not the lamb's grants absolution

1. "Mnesarete": a girl depicted on a Classical Athenian funeral stele, now in Munich.

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184
 The gold-rousing wind of the bell
the horseman who goes west for ascension
and the other imaginary horseman who goes
to impale the time of deterioration

The calming of wind on a June night

jasmine and dresses in the orchard
the stars' little animal ascending
the moment of joy just before weeping

A knot of soul and not a word

Aretousa 1 like an empty window
and eros "that descendeth from heaven
having put on a purple chlamys" 2

THE GIRLS the bluegrass of utopia

the girls the Pleiades led astray
the girls Vessels of Mysteries
filled to the brim yet bottomless

Acrid in darkness yet miraculous

painted in light and yet all black
turned on themselves like lighthouse beams
sun-devouring and moon-strolling

Ersi, Myrto, Marina

Helen, Roxanne, Photeine
Anna, Alexandra, Cynthia

The hatching of whispers in the conchs

a girl lost like a dream: Arignota3
a distant light that says: sleep
perplexed kisses like a crowd of trees

1."Aretousa": Princess heroine from the long, popular seventeenth-century romance Erot-
ocritos by Vicenzos Cornaros, a Cretan; episodes from the poem are still performed there, ac-
companied by the lyra.
2. "that descendeth ... chlamys": from Sappho (Lobel-Page, fr. 54). The whole fragment,
translated from Elytis's modern Greek rendering in his Sappho, might go: "you and Eros who
always obeys me I arriving from the high heavens dressed in a purple chlamys."
3. "Arignota": probably Sappho's i\ptyvrota (Lobel-Page fr. 90 ), about longing for Atthis, now
among the Lydians: "here like a goddess she was manifest enchanted by your sweet song!"

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185
 The bit of blouse the wind wears out
the grassy down along the shin
and the deep violet salt of the vulva
and the cold water of the Full Moon

AXION ESTI the song from afar

Helen's inlet with the little wave
the prickly pear glowing in the armpit
the future's grove-ruins and the spider's

Endless wakefulness in the heart

the sleepless clock which has no use
a black bed which keeps on floating
along the Milky Way's rough coasts

THE BOATS standing with a black foot

the boats goats of the Hyperboreans
chess pawns of the North Star and Hypnos
the boats Nicothoas 1 and Evadnes2

Filled with northwinds and Mt. Athos' 3 hazelnuts

smelling of dregs and ancient carobs
prows written like Saints' names on icons
heeling and motionless at the same time

the Angelica, the Polar, the Three Hierarchs

the Intrepid, the Little Maria, the Sea Master
the Halcyon, the Trust In God, the Annunciate

AXION ESTI the wave that's raging

and lifts five fathoms in the air
the hair poured to the raptor wheeling
and strikes the windowpanes in the storm

Marina as before she existed

with the dog's skull and with the demons

i. "Nicothoa": one of the Harpies.

2. "Evadne": faithful wife of Capaneus, one of the Seven against Thebes, burned herself on
his funeral pyre.
3. "Mt. Athos": the Orthodox Holy Mountain.

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186
 Marina the horn of Selene 1 the Moon
Marina the very ruin of the world

The quays exposed to the sirocco

the priest of clouds who changes his mind
the poor little houses that sweetly lean
one against the other and fall asleep

The sad face of the young rain

the virgin olive tree climbing the hill
not one voice in the tired clouds
the town's small snail that was crushed

AXION ESTI thou the bitter

and the alone lost from the start
the Poet working with the knife
in his third hand indelible:

FoR HE isDeathandheisLife
The Unforeseen and the Institutions

He's the plant's straight line that intersects the body

The lens's focus that burns the spirit

He is the thirst after the fountain

He is the war after peace

He is Ion 2 regarder of waves

He the Pygmalion of fire and monsters

He the fuse that the lips ignite

The invisible tunnel that outflanks Hades

Sensuality's Thief who can't be crucified

The Serpent at one with the Ear of Wheat

He the darkness and the lovely folly

Vernality of the rain of light

i. "Selene": the Moon, a goddess.

2. "Ion": might refer to the eponymous ancestor of the Ionians (see Euripides' play), especially
important in early Athenian propaganda; or the fifth-century Chian poet famous for his
tragedies, poems, and prose works; or the rhapsode in Plato's dialogue.

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187
 Ax ION ESTI the wolf's muzzle
turning into man's and his to an angel's
the nine steps Plotinus climbed 1
the earthquake's chasm that filled with flowers 2

The little touch the seagull leaves

and lights the pebbles like innocence
the line that is incised in your soul
sending word of the mourning of Paradise

AXION ESTI before the vision

Acheron's fanfare and fiery ocher
the burning poem and death's sound box
words spear-pointed and suicidal

The inward light milky white

in the image and likeness of the infinite
the mountains cast from no mold emitting
identical faces of eternity

THE MOUNTAINS with the arrogance of ruins

the moody mountains, with mammal's breasts
mountains like the reefs of vision
wholly enclosed yet with forty passes

Filled with drizzle like monasteries

hidden away in the fog of sheep
going about calmly as cowherds do
with black capes and with headscarf

Pindus, Rhodope, Parnassus

Olympus, Tymphrestus, Taygetus
Dirphys, Athos, Aenus 3

AXION ESTI the mountain-saddle opening

a way of eternal azure in the clouds

1. "nine steps Plotinus climbed": refers to the philosopher's chief work, the Enneads, a neo-
Platonic mystical book whose nine chapters, or steps, lead to God.
2. "earthquake's ... flowers": quotation, slightly varied, from Solomos's "The Free Besieged."
3. "Pindus ... Aenus": names of Greek mountains.

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188
 a voice dropped by chance in the valley
an echo day drank up like balsam

The oxen's effort to haul the heavy

olive groves towards the west
the smoke all undisturbed that goes
to seek and dissolve the works of men

AXION ESTI the lantern's passage

filled with ruins and black shadows
the page written under earth
the song Lithe-Girl sang in Hades 1

The carved-wood monsters on the icon-screen

ancient poplars sparkling like fish
lovely Korai with their stone arms
and Helen's neck that's like a beach

THE STARRY trees with their good will

musical notation of another world
the old faith that the very near
and yet invisible always exists

The shadow that leans them toward the earth

a something yellow in their memory
their ancient choral dance over the tombs
their wisdom that's beyond all price

the Olive, the Pomegranate, the Peach

the Pine, the Poplar, the Plane Tree
The Oak, the Beech, the Cypress

AXION ESTI the uncaused teardrop

welling slowly in beautiful eyes
of children who are holding hands
who speechless gaze at one another

1. "Lithe-Girl ... Hades": Name of a folk song ("Auyepii"), in which she asks three men to let
her escape with them from Hades so she can comfort her grieving family. They warn her that
her loved ones have already forgotten her and are enjoying life.

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189
 The stammering ofloves on the rocks
the lighthouse discharging the centuries' sadness
the cricket persistent as remorse
and desolate wool against the chill

Acrid oath-breaking mint in the teeth

two lips that can't consent-and yet
the "goodbye" shining briefly on the lashes
then the always turbid world

The slow and heavy organ of storms

Heraclitus in his ruined voice
the other invisible side of murderers
the little "why" that stayed unanswered

AxwN ESTI the hand returning

from a horrible murder and now knows
which world truly excels
which the "now" and "forever" of the world:

Now the wild beast of myrtle Now the cry of May

FOREVER the utmost conscience Forever the plenilune

Now now the hallucination and mimicry of sleep

Forever and forever the word and starry Keel

Now the moving cloud oflepidoptera

forever the mysteries' hovering light

Now the Earth's husk and the Authority

Forever the Soul's nourishment and quintessence

Now the Moon's incurable swarthiness

Forever the Milky Way's gold-cyan scintillation

Now the amalgam of peoples and the black Number

Forever Justice's statue and the great Eye

Now the Gods' humiliation Now the ashes of Man

Now Now the zero

and Forever the world the small the great!

THE AXION ESTI

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