My Sister’s Song

“MY sister,
only you were left me
to lean on your heart
and hear the pulse of men.
My life proceeded
beneath the canopy of your eyes.
You would come gentle and loving
in the evenings when bowed and silent
I wrote my angry verses
for the never ending wars
of light and blood.
I felt your presence
behind the night.
The honeysuckle
of tender hours

covered my grey roof
when your footsteps were heard.
You would smile
and all of heaven would come
into my room.
Azure reflections
fluttered on the walls
and remembrance of our home
stirred my heart
When I returned heavy
with night wanderings
and the proud bitterness of loneliness,
I would find the supper of love
steaming on the table
and childhood memory
-a frail butterfly
would play around your lamp.
You would stay up
waiting my return.
And when I,
the lover of Infinity,
would sink into the shadows
of nebulous doubts,
you
with your warm finger
would show me the footprints on the ground
and shape my ashes once again
into a human form.

I shared your stool
and so held
a place on the earth.
I measured time
by your pulse…”

Yannis Ritsos, My Sister’s Song
Translated by Marjorie Chambers