Ode 4 - Odysseus Elytis

A solitary swallow	*	and Spring's great worth is found
It takes a lot of work	*	to make the sun tum round
Their shoulders to the Wheels	*	it takes a thousand dead
It also takes the living	*	to offer up their blood.

God my greatest Masterworker	*	high in the mountains You built me
God my greatest Masterworker	*	You have surrounded me with sea!
The body of dead May	*	the Mages took to save
And they have buried it	*	entombed in a sea grave
They keep the body sealed	*	away in a deep well
The darkness filled all the	*	Abyss with its sweet smell.
God my greatest Masterworker	*	You are in Easter lilacs too
God my greatest Masterworker	*	You smelled the Resurrection's dew!
Memory’s terrible	*	insect emerged from earth
And wriggled like a sperm	*	in a dark womb of birth
The way a spider bites	*	the light it bit the light
The beaches all were shining	*	the open sea shone bright.
God my greatest Masterworker	*	You girt me round with coast and sea
God my greatest Masterworker	*	in the mountains You founded me!

---

Odysseus Elytis (1911 - 1996) Greece

Translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris

The collected poems of Odysseus Elytis, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997