I SHALL WAIT FOR YOU WHEN THE WOLF HOWLS

Demons travel the ageing river
trying to reach you before first light
it’s in your power to choose the night
for spelling the gold, for rising to earth.

I shall wait for you when the wolf howls
caught in the trap. I see winter’s mouth
at the edge of nightmare; the cypress bends
the season’s green burrow.

In the depth of impatient limbs I won my bread
night and day without turning my head
you didn’t grant me so much as your Shade;

Well for me if I am lost, earth
of my dream and air of my islands, as
a caϊque at dawn in the ocean of myth.

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