THE AXION ESTI, PSALM II (59)

I was given the Greek language;
a poor house on Homer’s beaches
My only care my language on Homer’ s beaches
Seabream there and perch
wind beaten verbs
green sea – currents amid the azure currents …

SUN THE FIRST (17)

Moon here moon there
Enigma read by the sea
For your own sake
The garden was entering the sea

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

SUN THE FIRST (162)

SUN THE FIRST (161)

Fire oh fire

SUN THE FIRST III (104)

What I love is born incessantly
What I love is at its beginning always

SUN THE FIRST IV (105)

I leave with a glance
A wide glance where the world again becomes
Beautiful from the beginning by the measures of the heart

MARIA NEPHELE, THAT WHICH PERSUADES (46)

A wrong sea cannot be

MARIA NEFELI, DISQUISITION ON BEAUTY (64)

My God what blue you spend for us not to see you

MARIA NEFELI, EYE OF THE LOCUST (51)

I still get involved with dreams
of the sky’s dark times
so much that if at that moment you try to embrace me
you’ ll get smeared with stars


translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

MARIA NEFELI, THE SONG OF MARIA NEPHELΙ (16)

Up amid the clouds I walk
like the lovely lightening vein
and what I give and what I take
changes into rain

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE GARDEN OF ILLUSIONS (80)

Man is like a sudden flash and if you saw you saw

TWO PARADISES (149)

ORIENTATIONS - SECOND NATURE (111)

Time is a quick shadow of birds
My eyes wide open amid its images

ORIENTATIONS, SECOND NATURE (99)

Sweet adventure
Sweet life

ORIENTATIONS, SECOND NATURE (3)

Before I had eyes you were light
Before Eros love
And when the kiss took you
A woman ,


translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

ORIENTATIONS, SECOND NATURE (95)

Around the all green success of leaves
butterflies live great adventures

ORIENTATIONS - SEVEN NOCTURNAL HEPTASTICS (112)

Propitious starlight brought the silence
And behind the silence an intruding melody
Mistress
Enchantress of former sounds

ORIENTATIONS - THE CONCERT OF HYACINTHS (116)

Each glam focuses on you

ORIENTATIONS - ANNIVERSARY (115)

Would that a free footstep be heard
That sterns splash the jetty writing

ORIENTATIONS, SEVEN NOCTURNAL HEPTASTICHS (74)

The diadem of the moon on the brow of night
when the shadows share the surface
of vision

ORIENTATIONS, SEVEN NOCTURNAL HEPRASTICHS (6)

The dew is born in leaves
As clear feeling
In the boundless sky
translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

ORIENTATIONS, SEVEN NOCTURNAL HEPTASTICS (82)

Dreams and dreams came to the birthday of jasmine

ORIENTATIONS - THE CONCERT OF HYACINTHS (114)

Stand a little closer to me

ORIENTATIONS - CLEPSYDRAS OF THE UNKNOWN (118)

Since it is not eros, since it is not eros
What is eros

ORIENTATIONS - CLEPSYDRAS OF THE UNKNOWN (117)

And the cold islands will ignite their hair so to stroll
On erotic seas with innocent flames and pebbles

ORIENTATIONS, SPORADES, CLEAR SKIES (98)

Wavering
Leafless
Free
As light

ORIENTATIONS, SPORADES, CLEAR SKIES (97)

With a breath of music in the leaves

ORIENTATIONS - OF THE AEGEAN (110)

Eros
The archipelago And the prow of its foams
And the gulls of its dreams

ORIENTATIONS, OF THE AEGEAN (68)

Sea surf kiss on its caressed sand, Eros
The gull gives the horizon its blue liberty

ORIENTATIONS, OF THE AEGEAN (5)

Wave in the light
Again gives birth to the eyes
When life sails toward far-seeing
Life

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

ORIENTATIONS, OF THE AEGEAN (4)

Waves go come. Foaming answering in the ears of shells
translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

ORIENTATIONS, OF THE AEGEAN (94)

The playing waters
in shady passages
speak the dawn with their kisses
which begins
horizon

ORIENTATIONS - OF THE AEGEAN (113)

Eros
Its ship
And the nonchalance of its summer winds
And the jib of its hope
On its lightest undulation an island cradles
The coming

ORIENTATIONS “Ode to Santorini” (131)

Queen of Aegean pulses and wings
With the words to convert the infinite

ORIENTATIONS “Ode to Santorini” (130)

You emerged from a thunderpeal’s entrails/ Shuddering amid repentant clouds

ORIENTATIONS “Ode to Santorini” (129)

Sea-wakened, proud
You lifted up your stone breast

ORIENTATIONS, ODE TO SANTORINI (96)

That feeling with open wings aflutter
Sprout with thousand colours
And freedom blow from everywhere

ORIENTATIONS – ORION (120)

Higher up
Serenity is enthroned
In united solitude of her stars

ORIENTATIONS - ORION (119)

Now stars neighbor our forehead

SPORADES, HELEN (109)

Wither shall we stretch our hands now time no more considers us
Wither shall we rest our eyes now the distant lines have foundered in the clouds

THE RHOS OF EROS, AUGUST (12)

August was washing his hair in the starlight
and from his beard dripped stars and jasmine
o August month and God we vow to you
that next year you’ ll find us again kissing on the cliff

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, FIREWORKS (11)

And I chose a star
I held it in my hand
She wore it as a bracelet
and sparkled all over
translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE DOLPHIN - GIRL (77)

“I have no boyfriend” she says with a pout
“To see what’s going on is why I’ m out”
She dives headlong into a wave and then
she reappears and grabs the boat again/ God save me but lean to see all this
and then the naughty girl gives me a kiss

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE DOLPHIN - GIRL (15)

She dives headlong into a wave and then
She reappears and grabs the boat again

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE BICYCLE GIRL (8)

I walked along the road by the sea
that the bicycle girl took every day
I found the fruit she had in her basket
the ring that fell off her finger

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, MAYA (61)

“Then bring the youngest one” I say
“Your little girl glittering May”
“Take her and know that by and by
you ‘ll be the husband of the sky”
The mountains all around now gleam
my hands give off a sparkling flame

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE POSTMAΝ (13)

Every morning when I get up
I run to the door and look
The trains and boats
continually come and go
The world catches pigeons
but I remain with empty hands

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, SUMMER TOOK EVERYTHING (71)

Summer took everything
and us two hand in hand

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE COMPLAINT (70)

As much as one is careful
as much as one chases them, always always it’s too late
there is no second life

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE GIRLS OF ISFAHAN (75)

Half-moon silver
comes into the jasmine
The girls gaze at it
from the gardens of Isfahan (6,…)
The garden leans to one side
amid the skies and goes

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE DESERT ISLE (72)

I set the bow and mast
and seek an island
which is found on no map
if you find the desert isle
everything is smoke
Just once you have to live it

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE SEA CLOVER (7)

Once in a long millennium
eternal love at last can come
So that you know good luck’s caress
and that the year brings you success
That from the places of the sky
it bring you true love by and by

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE SHELL (14)

A little cloud escaped my sight
it lifts grief to the mountain height
a cottage it would build to go there
in the always and the nowhere

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE SHELL (10)

I swim along year after year
when will love at last appear
translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE SHELL (9)

I jumped into the sea to swim
and left my heart behind
I left my heart on the ground
like a shell on the sand


translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE RHOS OF EROS, THE COMPLAINT (101)

Halfway on the road
The time came for me to say it
But it is there that I love
For elsewhere for elsewhere I started out

THE MONOGRAM (48)

In the middle of the sea
from only the wish for love, hear me/ Raised a whole island, hear me
with caves and capes and flowering cliffs
Listen, listen
who speaks to the waters and who weeps – hear?

THE MONOGRAM (160)

This flower of the storm and

THE MONOGRAM (159)

The waves have heard about you

THE MONOGRAM (163)

THE MONOGRAM (2)

In paradise I‘ve marked an island out
identical to you and a house by the sea
with a big bed and a little door

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE MONOGRAM (1)

Because I love you and in love I know
How to enter like the full moon
From everywhere, for your small foot in the huge sheets
How to pluck jasmines flowers – and I have the power…

translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

THE MONOGRAM (150)

SPRING A.D. (148)

HELEN (108)

“The nightingales won’t let you sleep in Platres.”/ Shy nightingale, in the breathing of the leaves, you who bestow the forest’s musical coolness…

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

EROTIKOS LOGOS II (62)

The secrets of the sea are forgotten on the shores
The darkness of the depths is forgotten in the surf
The corals of memory suddenly shine purple…

, EROTIKOS LOGOS (55)

Where is the double-edged day that had changed everything?
translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

LOGBOOK I, THE JASMINE (18)

Whether it’s dusk or dawn’s first light
The jasmine stays always white

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

LOGBOOK I, MORNING (60)

And there the sun! And the birds of paradise
A huge sun greater than the light

LOGBOOK III, HELEN (63)

I moored alone with this fable, if it’s true that it is a fable

SUMMER SOLSTICE (19)

The sea-breeze and the freshness of dawn
Exist whether or not we want them totranslated by


EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

SUMMER SOLSTICE, 13 (24)

Dawn’s ghosts have blown into the dry shells
a bird sang three times, three times only

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

MYTHISTOREMA 8 (21)

We knew that the islands were beautiful
Somewhere round about here where we grope
Slightly lower down or slightly higher up
A tiny space

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

MYTHISTOREMA 23 (135)

A little farther
we will see the almond trees blossoming
the marble gleaming in the sun
the sea breaking into waves
a little farther, let us rise a little higher


translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

Pantoum (147)

The stars contain a world of their own / ships drag fires over the sea /


Translation: E.Keely and Ph. Sherrard

ON A RAY OF WINTER LIGHT, THREE SECRET POEMS (23)

Flame is healed by flame
Not in the slow trickle of moments
But in a single flash, at once


translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

NOTES FOR A “WEEK”, WEDNESDAΥ (47)

But the sea; I don’t know that they‘ve drained it dry

TURNING POINT, DENIAL (89)

On the secret sea-shore/ white like a pigeon/ we thirsted at noon
but the water was brackish/ on the golden sand/ we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew/ and the writing vanished

SKETCHES FOR A SUMMER (22)

Flowers of the rock facing the green sea
With veins that reminded me of other loves
Glowing in the slow fine rain
Flowers of the rock, figures that came when no one spoke
And spoke to me

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

SKETCHES FOR A SUMMER (20)

In the sea caves
There’s a thirst there’s a love
There’s an ecstasy
All hard like shells
You can hold them in your palmtranslated by


EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

INDIA (44)

I wish to travel to India,a journey that is long
I wish to be a long long time gone...

SUMMER FINDS (102)

My home is the sea
My garden is the sandy beach
I sleep under the stars
And I hear the music of the reeds

A key and a teardrop (141)

A key and a teardrop

Secret key (139)

Secret key

STARRY NIGHTS (91)

When we are together, our days are bright; our nights shine under the starlight

THE DREAM (66)

I had a dream long before I met you and in the dream I knew that I would love you

FULL MOON (92)

When the moon is full I wish I could sleep in your arms, and together we would fly to the stars

THOUGHTS LIKE BIRDS (81)

If your thoughts are like birds that you keep locked up in a cage
I’m giving you the key
to set them free

DUSK (85)

Colours become sweeter at dusk
You can see the islands, they look so beautiful afar

WINGS OF LOVE (45)

You feel a breeze upon your face
It’s the wings of love

Key-kiss (140)

Key kiss

Winter night (136)

In a cold winter night, in your arms you hold me tight,
and I forget all about my old life.

A thousand sweet little words (138)

Wear it around your wrist and hear my voice whispering sweet tender little words

HOURS (93)

Hours seem endless when I am not with you, how come they are so short when I am near you

COME BACK (28)

Come back often and take hold of me
sensation that I love…
translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

I WENT (54)

I didn’t hold myself back. I gave in completely and went. And drunk strong wine, the way the champions of pleasure drink


translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

THE CITY (31)

You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,
find another city better than this one”

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

MORNING SEA (53)

Let me stop here. Let me, too, look at nature a while. The brilliant blue of the morning sea, of the cloudless sky,t

ranslated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

ITHAKA (107)

May there be many a summer morning when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors seen for the first time…

Ithaca (164)

(...with what pleasure), what joy,( you come into harbors seen for the first time…)

ITHAKA (30)

As you set out for Ithaca
hope the voyage is a long one
full of adventure, full of discovery

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

ITHAKA (29)

Laistrygonians and Cyclops/ wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter
them
unless you bring them along inside your soul


translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

ITHAKA (27)

Wild Poseidon you won’t encounter…,

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

ITHAKA (26)

Keep Ithaca always in your mind
Arriving there is what you are destined for
But do not hurry the journey at all ,

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

ITHAKA (25)

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey
Without her you would not have set out
She has nothing left to give you now

translated by EDMUND KEELY and PHILIP SHERRARD

THE WALLS (86)

With no consideration, no pity, no shame, they’ve built walls around me, thick and high. And now I sit here feeling hopeless. I can’t think of anything else: this fate gnaws my mind – because I had so much to do outside. When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed!/ But I never heard the builders, not a sound./ Imperceptibly they’ve closed me off from the outside world.

Voice from the Sea (151)

The sea once (146)

The sea once had lifted us upon her wings / we used to go down to sleep with her / we used to fish birds up in the air with her / we used to swim into the voices and the colours during the day / at nights, we used to lie under the trees and the clouds /
we used to wake up in the middle of the night just to sing (...)

THE SUN TONIGHT (153)

The sun tonight is sweet /
And the birds light up in their ecstasy

The cold earth is bringing up the spring

Hello to the sea (145)

Life is no madness
Life is swimming in the wind

COME AND SEE THE SPRING (152)

Come and see the spring walking/
waving to us while hugging the clouds/
Come and see my daughter / how she is grown / singing with a voice that is not her own
Singing with a pulse so strong,
a pulse of the whole world

I NEED TO GO FOR A WALK (158)

I need to go for a walk / to go for a walk with the trees / in a world full of waters

THE SEA WAS TORN INTO PIECES (157)

The sea was torn into countless crystals / we picked them up and we ride with the wind

THE SADNESS THE GARDEN (154)

(...) Like the sea shells I have loved / At first dawn / in my sea-years

I SPEAK (144)

I speak because there is a sky that listens
I speak because your eyes speak

THE AIR ITSELF IS A FLOWER (155)

The air itself is a flower / Now / I feel it cool on my face / I feel it cool on my own eyes

WHO IS FOOL FOR LOVE (156)

Who is fool for love / should dig holes in dawn / let us go there / and drink the rain

EROTOKRITOS (76)

Your likeness has been painted on my mind

EROTOKRITOS (73)

The cycles with their traits that rise and fall
Time’s wheel that knows the height and depth of all

EROTOKRITOS (40)

Into this world a constant love dawned bright to blend two hearts in its unfailing light

EROTOKRITOS (57)

How can my heart then fail you? It was cast
By you yourself into love’s furnace - blast

EROTOKRITOS (52)

So many things they longed to say, but their lips could not move, so they talked with their hearts

AMORGOS (103)

AMORGOS (69)

I have loved you so much, I who once touched you with the eyes of the Pleiades

AMORGOS (33)

Goodnight then, I see thousands of shooting stars that cradle your dreams, but I, I hold in my fingers the music for a better day

AMORGOS (32)

A kiss from the lips of the foam - tressed seas

QUOTES (37)

I fear nothing, I hope for nothing, I am free

QUOTES (36)

You‘ve got the brushes, you‘ve got the colours, just draw Paradise and get in

QUOTES (65)

Our life is just a lightning but we still have time

QUOTES (90)

They asked the almond tree about God and the almond tree blossomed

ANTIGONE (122)

Tis not my nature to join in hating, but in loving
(I was not born to hate, but to love )

ANTIGONE (121)

Love, unconquered in the fight, Love, who makest havoc of wealth, who keepest thy vigil on the soft cheek of a maiden; (...)
(Sophocles, Antigone, written 442 B.C., translated in english by R. C. Jebb)

QUOTE (128)

Time leads things to oblivion

Tireus (132)

Noone is born better than anybody else

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS (125)

The sea washes away all human evil

ORESTES (124)

Change is always sweet

ORESTES (142)

After the storm I see calmness again.

QUOTE (127)

The words of truth are simple

PERSIANS (123)

It is delightful to see the light

OF LOVE (35)

Of all the stars that shine up in the sky
There’s only one that looks exactly like you
The one that rises at sweet dawn

OF LOVE (34)

If you love me and it’s a dream
I never want to wake up
Because I long to die with your love

THE LIGHT THAT BURNS (38)

Oh sea, I can’t get enough of gazing at you, at your blue and calm
waters I gaze at the sea from high up, and I get richer inside

QUOTE (106)

Oh sea, my eternal love… when I look at you, everything is ahead… and all sorrows are left behind

AMORGOS WATER (79)

THE CASTLE IN ASTYPALEA (78)

TAKE MY HEART (67)

Take my heart I want to lose it
Take my heart I’ll never use it

SUMMERTIME (137)

Summertime and the living is easy

QUOTE (42)

You are not a drop in the ocean
You are the entire ocean in a drop

PERFECT DAY (43)

Just a perfect day
I’ m glad I spent it with you
Oh such a perfect fay
you just keep me hanging on

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SEA (39)

The most beautiful sea hasn’t been crossed yet
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you, I haven’t said yet

IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING (83)

In a manner of speaking I just want to say
that I could never forget the way
you told me everything by saying nothing

Find time (133)

Find time to make dreams, dreams will carry you up to the stars.

1 Corinthians 13 (134)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. (...)
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

SUMMER (greek song) (58)

Summer, the blue quay is going to bring you

SERENITY (41)

You can’t hear a wave
At the lonely shore
As if the sea is sleeping
Into earth’s arms ,

HELEN (126)

Heaven is common for all mortals

MORNING STAR (greek song) (50)

Oh pale morning star, we stay awake to see you…

I PASSED BY (100)

And yes, I did go to the sea. I deserved an amplitude. Let’s say I got it.

Greek song (56)

What is the colour of love? Who is going to find it for me?

At the bottom of the sea (143)

I was sleeping for years at the bottom of the sea, at the bottom of the sea side by side with a white sea shell

SUMMER BREEZE (87)

My sweet love, only if you knew, you‘re like honey to me…
The beautiful buds, that smell so nice and the light summer breeze, nothing can cure me like you do…

IN THE VALLEY OF THE ROSES (49)

And now, I love life even more

ATTHIS (84)

Love, like the wind, shook my thoughts, like the wind on the mountains, that bends the oak trees