Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume III

Persephone (excerpt)

At that time the rabbits go down to the roads; their eyes

shine because of the headlights of the last cars. Totally

flat silence is spread, you can’t fold it; one of its corners

is dipped in the river, the other rises to the south, faraway

into the sea, the third one vanishes in the opposite island

the fourth one behind the moon with the yellow grass.

It’s nice during the autumn. I breathe; the sun loses its

dominion, its powerful conceit; they all relax and become

themselves again, so much so that I think, perhaps death

is our true self. The crystal, diaphanous evening star, rises

higher, shines auspiciously over the forest, like a tiny drop

of crystal water, radiating close to us, as if glued onto the

window panes, and at the same time far away; a white

glow, a purified tear full of glitter joy and futility,

a silent, deep certainty of the end and of eternity.

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