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IN THE GOLD AGAIN

I didn’t know where to start from
they all gave me their limbs warm
their forgotten tongues, that I should speak them now
that everything should become mine for ever —
it was a sacrifice that lasted two nights
I believed I saw my birth clearly two nights
thousands of years before
- you were sitting with your breasts bare dripping light
in the middle of my dream I saw the head
walking the edge of the terrace
all the dead I could raised high
to God’s embrace
then I went back to the ruined places,

joy such a dark passage
as soon as it was dark I opened the door
and went out, to live
in the cold again.

(Translated by Simon Darragh, Agenda, Greek poetry –new voices and Ancient Echoes, guest editor: David Connolly, vol.36 Nos. 3-4, spring 1999)