DIARY OF EXILE III
April 25
This year the blackbirds are the tiles
on the roof of summer.
Fear gropes like the blind man's hand
for the handle of the door.
You sit on a rock
You're calm because you're tired
you're good because you were afraid
you forget easily because you don't want to remember
you don't forget.
May 1
The soldier crushed his cigarette into the ground.
How easily every single thing can be crushed.
Across the water, Laviro.
Who is it who said: the women reapers
with the swallows' scythe?
Cover your ears with your hands.
Shame. Shame.
May 3
The people sit in the sun
they take off their jackets
their boots become tight
the soldiers' armpits sweat.
You rub a little thyme between your fingers.
This is how we slowly slowly age
above the second death.
May 4
Someone is smoking beside the guardhouse.
The evening star looks out above the mountain
as if it's knocked on the wrong door.
The utility poles darken
they stretch full length
afraid they'll bend.
May 5
They owe us a lot.
If we don't get it back
we'll owe that too.
The floorboards are moldy from the damp
the windows warped the panes broken
dirtied sheets loose boots
the bread has no odor
the people have grown very thin
like saints.
Concentration camp
Makronisos, 1950
_______________________
Yannis Ritsos
Diaries of Exile
translated by Karen Emmerich & Edmund Kelley
Archipelago Books, 2013
