Summer 2006

Miltos Sachtouris
The Difficult Sunday

Since morning I’ve gazed up at a better bird
since morning I’ve enjoyed the snake coiled at my neck

Broken cups on the carpets
purple flowers the fortune-teller’s cheeks
when she lifts the skirts of fate
something will sprout from this joy
a new blossomless tree
a pure new eyelid
or a worshipped word
that won’t have kissed forgetting on the mouth

Outside the bells clang
outside unimaginable friends are waiting for me
they’ve hoisted a dawn high and wave it around
such fatigue such fatigue
a yellow dress—an embroidered eagle—
a green parrot—I close my eyes-caws
always always always
the band plays false melodies
such passionate eyes such women
such loves such cries such loves
friend love blood friend
give me your hand how cold

It was freezing
I no longer know what time they all died
leaving me a dismembered friend
and a bloody branch for company

Beauty

He sprinkled ugliness with beauty
took a guitar
took a path by the riverside
Singing

He lost his voice
it was stolen by the furious woman
who cut off her head in the red waters
and the poor man has no more voice to sing
and the river rolls the quiet head
with closed lids

Singing

The Three Lovers

In the rainy evening streets
a seagreen light steams
wide hand on the heart
crumbling footsteps
three lovers pass by arm in arm
             the first

Hung his love from a tree
at midnight he prays under it
for his leaf-bound love to come down
for the flood of melting leaves to subside
a dog laps his tears from the soil
his love in the branches pelts him with rocks
the tree howls the wind the dog
             the second

Gave his love to a mad fiddler
the madman turned it to song
the sky rains flowers and coins
the streets echo the ruinous fiddle
now everyone has learned the song of love
they whistle it with pursed lips blue with cold
he alone doesn’t know it
             the third

Made his love into a boat
and sent it off onto the three seas
now he’s become a child again
building castles in the sand
collecting pebbles and shells
and waiting for the return
of his love the boat

Each of them has carved a tree in his heart
a fiddle by their ears will drive them mad
and the captain plays with coral in the deep

Observatory

These thieves of the sun
have never seen a green branch
never touched a fiery mouth
never learned the color of the sky

Shut up in dark rooms
they don’t know when they might die
they lie in wait
with black masks and heavy telescopes
with stars in their pockets covered in crumbs
with cowards’ rocks in their hands
they lie awaiting the light of other planets

Let them die

Let each Spring be judged by its joy
each flower by its color
each hand by its caress
each kiss by the shudder it brings

The Deep

A sailor high in the sky
dressed in white
runs into the moon

And down on earth the girl
with red eyes
sings a song
that doesn’t reach the sailor

It reaches the harbor
it reaches the boat
it reaches the masts

But it can’t reach up to the moon

The Sky

Birds black arrows of difficult sorrow
it’s no easy thing to love the sky
you’ve learned well to say that it’s blue
but do you know its caves its forest its rocks?
so as you pass like winged whistles
your flesh gets torn on its glass
your downy feathers stick to its heart

And when night creeps fearfully from the trees
you gaze at the white kerchief of the moon
the naked virgin shrieking in the sky’s embrace
the old woman’s mouth of rotting teeth
the stars with their swords and golden threads
the sky’s lightning its thunder its rain
the distant bliss of its galaxy

Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich