Midday Summer Dream: 1

Yannis Ritsos

WE RODE the wings of swallows gathering flowers from the sky.

For us the summer wind had no secrets, as we walked barefooted on the grass and spoke to cicadas in the language of sun.

The fire burned completely and became fire again.

We wove flower rings and pretended to marry trees, the air, the first silence.

Every pebble knew us just as we knew ever star that slept in water.

At night, the acacia trees passed by outside outside our windows, they reached across our open windowsill and left a flowering branch in a glass.

We drew the cheerful god of the vineyards back to the large green fields, his beard dripping juice, his feet like those of the goat, and his glance like that of Christ, compassionate and kind.

Yesterday and the day before that, all night, we tried to count the stars.

The stars are so numerous, as numerous our hearts, only our hearts are even more numerous than the stars.


from Midday Summer Dream (1938) [Collected Poems: Alpha ---pg 341]