Down on the daisy’s little threshing floor,
honeybees have set to madcap dancing.
Sweat slicks the sun, waters shimmer.
Soaring stalks of wheat flex the dusky sky.
Yonder in among the golden durra
girls – tomboys – slumber.
Their sleep smells of blazes.
In their teeth, the sun thrashes.
Down on the daisy’s little threshing floor.
Odysseus Elytis, from the collection “Sun the First” (1943)
Κάτω στης μαργαρίτας τ’ αλωνάκι,
στήσαν χορό τρελό τα μελισσόπουλα.
Ιδρώνει ο ήλιος, τρέμει το νερό.
Στάχυα ψηλά λυγίζουνε το μελαμψό ουρανό.
Πέρα μέσα στα χρυσά νταριά
κοιμούνται αγοροκόριτσα.
Ο ύπνος τους μυρίζει πυρκαγιά.
Στα δόντια τους ο ήλιος σπαρταράει.
Κάτω στης μαργαρίτας τ’ αλωνάκι.
Odysseas Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979.
Poem set to music by Yiannis Markopoulos, in a song first performed by Maria Dimitriadi in 1969.
Taken from the screenplay of a feature film in pre-production: Summer Spell by Rinio Dragasaki.
see also
(this transpolium lives alone)
arkhæio
SUMMER SPELL
