Kostas Karyotakis Poems

At sixteen they laughed
yonder, in the springtime afternoon.
Later their lips became silent
...

Helen S. Lamari, 1878-1912
Poet and musician.
Died with the most frightful pains of the body
and with the greatest calm of the spirit.
...

Oh, our little orange tree
all full of flowers
and like a bride dressed
all in white
...

In your current is the laughter of the gods,
Saronica immortal, the blessing of our ship,
like your deep calm, and just as deep the tempest
...

I stare at the ceiling's plasterwork.
I'm drawn into the dance of the meanders.
My happiness, I'm thinking, would
lie in height.
...

My verses, children of my blood.
They speak, but I supply the words
like fragments of my heart,
I offer them like tears from my eyes.
...

They betrayed virtue and the last came first.
With money the heart is taken and the friend is appraised.
...

This is no longer a song, no human
hum. It can be heard reaching
as a last cry, in the depths of night,
of someone who has died
...

On the sand the great works of the human race are built,
and like a little child Time wrecks them with his foot.
...

The hours have faded me, found once again
leaning across the thankless table.
(The sun slips through the window in the wall that
...