since their home sends them
away and the roads don’t
even desire them because
the Goddess Freedom, that rules
over everyone and makes grace
out of evil, deserted them and
they can’t live in foul air nor
in the country nor in the city.
Bastards, liars, thieves and
seducers whose evil has no
fire nor air, nor stature
as if they were Christians,
Turks, godless who live here
and there and they’re tossed
around, travelling gypsies or
domesticated.
Behold the gypsies, last remnants
of a dead nobility, different
than the raggedly dressed crowd,
with faces glowing in the sunlight
sharp like sharpened blades and
from their unbending bodies
by chance glances, stirrings
still know how to order
still know how to guide.
Manolis Aligizakis 