The Delians

The Fresco

Having loved and lived for centuries within the sea I learned to read and write
Thus Now I can see with great depth the generations one above the other much as won mountain rises up before the other’s finished
I gaze and ahead the same again:
The deep dark bottle and the young Helen on the arm whose side rests on the whitewashed wall
Pouring the Holy Virgin’s wine with half her body already fleeing to Asia across the water
And the entire embroidery transferred into the sky with the swallow-tailed birds the yellow flowers and the suns

Odysseus Elytis