Flow
You found the lumberjack’s son under the trees
He wasn’t injured You took off his shoes
You cleaned the ants from his armpits He let you
You leaned your cheek on his belly He let you
You heard behind the cane fields on the opposite
bank that they were throwing their axes in the river
Gathering
We all gathered in the main plaza of the yellow city,
young, unshaven men, girls with breasts poking through
their blouses, birds hovered over the eternal void as if
to define its borders and the old man stood opposite
the dignitaries. His snow white beard shone, his wide open
arms invited the undesirable and he looked as if he had just
jumped off the family mirror where our dead stood next
to him, all with long, grey beards too. Flower pots and shrubs
of the square remained silent until the old man started
his discourse, the rain recommenced, birds found shelter
in the bushes, dignitaries run to the closest beer parlour
and our old man with the white beard found his comfort
in the arms of the beggar.
I like those who build the house of Übermensch and
who work the fields the livestock, the crops. Thus
they prepare for their end.
Στην αρχική φωτογραφία απεικονίζεται ο ναός της Ήρας στον Σελινούντα της Σικελίας. Οικοδομήθηκε τον 6ο αιώνα π.Χ. πάνω σε ένα αρχαιότερο κτίριο, σε έναν λόφο της Ακρόπολης της πόλης. Οι κάτοικοι του Σελινούντα έχτισαν 7 ακόμη ναούς.
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TWO YOUNG MEN TWENTY THREE
TO TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD
He had been in the café since ten-thirty,
and was expecting him to show up anytime.
Midnight came—and he still waited.
One-thirty in the morning; and the cafe
was almost completely empty.
He got tired of reading newspapers
mechanically. From his three solitary shillings
he only had one left: he waited so long
he spent all the rest on coffees and cognacs.
He had smoked all his cigarettes.
All this waiting exhausted him. Because
he had been alone for hours, he began to
to be overwhelmed by disturbing thoughts
of his morally corrupt life.
But as he saw his friend coming in— at once
the tiredness, the boredom, the thoughts vanished.
His friend brought unexpected news.
He had won sixty pounds gambling.
Their handsome faces, their exquisite youth,
the sensual love they felt for each other
were refreshed, revived, invigorated
by the sixty pounds from the gambling house.
And full of joy and strength, feeling and beauty
they went—not to the homes of their honourable families
(where they were not welcomed anyway):
they went to a well-known to them very special
and friendly house of vice, and asked for a room,
and ordered expensive drinks, and they drank again.
And when the expensive drinks were gone,
and it was almost four in the morning
they gave themselves happily to love.
Manolis Aligizakis 