DREAMS OF A SLEEPLESS NIGHT       

He awakened from a sleepless night

dreaming he had been fast asleep

and in his sleep had dreamed a dream

but it was frayed about the edges

where it left off he could not tell,

could not remember distinctly.

He only knew that his dream sleep

was rich with landscapes beyond imagination.

He passed the time

cutting his life into slices

which, transfixed, he later reassembled

of an afternoon, awake while all around him

slept the sleep of bygone days.

Before his eyes he watched days file by

days that waved to him

from a downhill path to the sea.

He had stood motionless on the sand,

feeling not a twinge of boredom,

only the joy of dreaming a dream

of an evening, of a night

as he lay wide awake

looking on from the depths of calm

at a dream where he had played a walk-on role.

Such were the dreams he dreamed

on his many sleepless nights.

Translated from the Greek by Fred A. Reed