Euripides the Athenian ... by Seferis

He grew old between the fires of Troy
and the quarries of Sicily.

He liked sea-shore caves and pictures of the sea.
He saw the veins of men
as a net the gods made to catch us in like wild beasts:
he tried to break through it.
He was a sour man, his friends were few;
when his time came he was torn to pieces by dogs.


- George Seferis (1900-1971)

Translated by Edmund Keely & Philip Sherrard

Ultimate Reality ... by Lawrence

A young man said to me:
I am interested in the problem of Reality.

I said: Really!
Then I saw him turn to glance, surreptitiously,
in the big mirror, at his own fascinating shadow.


- D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

A Theological Definition ... by Oppen

A small room, the varnished floor
Making an L around the bed,

What is or is true as
Happiness

Windows opening on the sea,
The green painted railings of the balcony
Against the rock, the bushes and the sea running


- George Oppen (1908-1984)

from Of Being Numerous (1967)

The Night has a Thousand Eyes ... by Bourdillon

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.



- Francis William Bourdillon (1852-1921)