Adolescence of day first lily of joy The ancient myrtle flutters its flag The breasts of skylarks shall open to the light And a song shall hover in mid-air Sowing the golden barley of fire To the five winds
Setting free a terrestrial beauty
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�
Oh how beautiful you are With the new earth you ache for From the root to the summit of shadows Amid nets of eucalyptus trees With half the sky in your eyes And the the other half in eyes you love
Oh how beautiful you are As you awaken the mill of winds And lean your nest to the left That so much love might not go lost That not even one shadow may complain To the Greek butterfly-girl you inflamed
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�
Always the small star you and I the dark ship at night Always the small harbor you and I the lantern placed to the right The wet splashwall and the glittering of oars High up in the house with its bowers of marigold The bound rose bushes and the water growing cold Always the stone statue you and always I its lengthening shadow The leaning window shutter you and I the wind that opens it on the meadow Because I love you and in loving you divert The coin that is always you for I am the adoration that converts
Given that I don't share any of the sentiments that drive forth the poem, about Greece and its glorified life force - the Sun - and the historical socio-political struggles, still the verse was out there... A case then of respecting a different kind of excellence from my own preferences. And was there an awful lot of occult symbolism in there or just me?
I won't go anywhere do you hear me Either no one alone or both of us together do you hear me This flower of the thunderstorm do you hear me And of love We have plucked once and forever do you hear me And it can never blossom in any other way do you hear me In any other earth on any other star do you hear me That soul does not exist that air does not exist That we have ourselves once touched do you hear me
And no gardener was ever so lucky in times past do you hear me
After so many winters and so many harsh winds do you hear me As to make one flower sprout but only we do you hear me In the middle of the sea Out of love's longing alone do you hear me Have we raised an entire island do you hear me With cavern s and coves and flowering cliffs Listen-listen Who is talking to the waters who is weeping-do you hear Who is trying to find the other who is shouting-do you hear It's I who is talking, it's I who is weeping do you hear me I love you I love you do you hear me.
I usually have several books of poetry in a stack by my chair that I read from each evening and randomly select which to read depending on my mood. I think this is a good indicator of how much I enjoy the books, by how long its been in the pile, because the ones I really like I end up reading in one sitting while others linger for a while. This book has been in the pile for a couple of months so that indicates it wasn't a favorite. According to the introduction Elytis was very concerned with structure and shape of his stanzas in the number and similarity of line length. The following short snippet is an example of his work:
Like a switch man at the rails it shall be Fate's intent To shunt the lines of our palm elsewhere And time for a moment will consent
How else, since men do love each other?
Our feelings then shall be acted out by the sky And innocence shall smite the world With the sharpness of dark death when I
Shall mourn the sun and mourn all future years And we not here, and I shall sing of other things that disappear If these are true
The Mediterranean with all its splendor dwells in these poems..the enchanted Greek islands..pine and cypress forests..olive groves and orange blossoms, the sea and its boats, mountains, hills and fields of wheat..here the Gods and Godesses are still alive, and verse is music, colour, frangrance and memory..
I have mapped out an island in Paradise That looks like you and a house by the seaside
With a large bed and a small door I have cast a sound into the bottomless depths of the sea To look at myself each morning when I arise
And see the half of you passing over the watery floor As I weep for your other half in Paradise.