“Where will we rest our eyes now that the distant lines
are shipwrecked in the clouds”
HELEN
With the first drop of rain the summer was killed
Drenching the words that had given birth to starlight
All the words that had their single destination You!
Where will we lay our hands now that the weather no longer cares for us anymore
Where will we rest our eyes now that the distant lines
are shipwrecked in the clouds
Now that your eyelids are closed to our landscape
And we are – as if the mist entered us –
All alone, surrounded by your dead images.
Pressing the forehead to the pane, we hold wake for the new sorrow
It is not death that will throw us down as you are alive
Somewhere there is a wind to let you live whole
To dress you close by as our hope dresses you from afar
Elsewhere there exists
A green plain beyond your laughter reaching the sun
Telling him in secret that we will meet again
It is not death that we will face
But this drop of autumn rain
A clouded feeling
The smell of damp soil enters our souls that withdraw from all
And if it is not your hand in our hand
And if our blood is not in the veins of your dreams
The light in the immaculate sky
And the unseen music inside us oh! melancholy
Tramp who keep us in the world still
It is the humid air and time for autumn separation
The bitter bracing cornerstone of memory
It comes out when the night goes to separate us from the light
Behind the square window facing the sadness
That does not see a thing
Why were there even unseen music flames from the fireplace chimes from the big clock on the wall
Why were there even
Poem verse with another verse a hum parallel to the rain tears
and words
Words not like the rest but with a single destination:
You!
– Odysseas Elytis, 1940
Source: https://thegeby.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/odysseas-elytis-%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%BD%CE%B7-helen/
Dafni Riga 