Under the bronze mountains spring walks
girls follow in translation,
one moment in the garden, tracing Lusieri.

The blinds make bars across the page,
errant note? no I remember the bliss
of the lines, my eyes opening on them.

Byron's estates in Eng-a-land
have been annexed to the big idea,
[exeunt the peasantry singing through every landscape]

I cast the cards of the myriorama
for musing swains and lacustrine vistas,
traffic jams and haunted bedrooms.

Turner asking Elgin for £400 p.a.
– I have been obliged to be a little barbarous
and the Cretan fish eating all Lusieri' s pictures.

Ten men line up to shoot Judas for Easter,
Nicolo dancing on the ruins of empire,
Nicolo dancing on broken stones and harbours.

Yannis Ritsos is free.