translated by Yannis Goumas

to Nikos Gatsos

This is the River Loussios
Its source is on the mountain here
No one knows it
no one sees it
It flows over stones for a stretch
over fields
Some fine horses, some free birds
quench their thirst in its waters
Farther on it ruins into the ancient River Alpheus.
Only the vast sea that receives it
keeps silent as it vanishes.

  99 Poems, Odos Panos Publications, Athens, 1999