translated by Nikos Sarris and Jeffrey Carson

Men have a finite place

And the same space is given to birds but

Infinite!

           Infinite the garden where, just de-

Tached from death (before disguised it touches me

Again), I played and everything came easily to hand

That seahorse! And the pulp of the bubble breaking!

The little blackberry boat in deep currents

Of foliage! And the forward mast all flags!

For now they came to me. But I existed like yesterday

And later the long long unknown life of the unknown

So be it. Even when you say things nicely you’re spent;

Like the flow of water that soul after soul connects space

And you are found walking a tightrope from one Galaxy to another

While beneath your feet the chasms rumble. And you either make it

            or you don’t

Ah first ardors faintly impressed on my sheets. Oh female angels

Who signaled to me from on high to advance fearlessly into the

            thick of things

Since even if I were to fall from the window, the sea

would be my horse again

The huge watermellon wherein I once dwelled unsuspecting

And those young servant girls, whose loose hair knew

With the intelligence of wind how to unwind over the chimneys!

Such truly amazing adjustment of yellow to blues

And the writings of birds that wind pushes through the window

While you are sleeping and watching things to come

The sun knows. It descends into you to see. Because outside things

Are a mirror. Nature dwells in the body and takes revenge from it

As in a holy wildness like a lion’s or Anchorite’s

Your own flower grows

                                    which is called Thought

(No matter that, by studying, I have arrived where

I always used to arrive by swimming)

Wise men have a finite space

And the same space is given to children but

Infinite!

            Infinite is death without months and centuries

There is no way there to come of age; and so

To the same rooms to the same gardens you will turn again

Holding the cicada that is Zeus and from one

Galaxy to another he takes his summers.