12 small, lustrous and moist faces,
just like raindrops.

With the first drop of rain summer was killed
The words that gave birth to starlight got drenched
All the words whose unique destination was You!
Whither shall we stretch out hands
now time no more consider us
Whither shall we rest our eyes
now the distant lines have foundered in the clouds
Now your eyelids have closed on our landscapes
And we –as if the fog entered us- are
Alone all alone surrounded by your dead images.

Forehead to the windowpane we keep sleepless watch
over new grief
It is not death shall cast us down since You exist
Since elsewhere a wind exists wholly to live you
To dress you from close by as our hope dresses you from afar
Since elsewhere greenest prairies exist
Beyond your laughter as far as the sun
Telling it in confidence that we shall meet again
Not it is not death we shall confront
But just a tiny drop of autumn rain
A turbid emotion
The smell of damp earth within our souls that continually grow
more distant…

Odysseas Elytis – From the poem “Helen”
(trans. by Jeffrey Carson & Nikos Sarris)