Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Selected Books, Volume IV

REPETITIONS THIRD SERIES

Extract

From all we read, only that messenger remained

who was striking the bronze door knob of the temple,

not what he said nor what was said by the angry king,

who was moving his wide sleeves. Only the sound

of the door knob echoes in the dark rooms and

in the empty pedestal of the wooden statue

of the Deer Goddess, which stolen and

on the ship it now travels to Athens — the sound

of the oars along with the sound of the door knob.

Luckily, he said, we retain things like these,

consoling things, unaltered, united

as if we are unaltered too.

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