Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Midday Summer Dream: 18

Yannis Ritsos

WHEN PANAGIA passed silently under the trees, no one heard her.

The dogs didn't bark in the courtyard.

Only crickets greeted her, and a large star struck like a chord of some unknown song that the children only heard in their sleep and turned from one side to the other smiling.

Today in the fields, small golden lilies came up and the shepherds who found them kneeled and prayed.

It's true, the old blind man's sight returned, and the crippled walked, and before the eyes that have shed so many tears and looked night directly in the face, a small almond tree burst into bloom.

And that same night their sleep became a swallow's nest built under the brace of an old church bell.


from Midday Summer Dream (1938) [Collected Poems: Alpha ---pg 349-350]

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