Dancing girl

''Perplexity''
Closed shops. Flour spilt upon the pavement.
   Sandbags heaped by the shelter. Hands folded,

sad, he sits behind the garden's gate. A mob
of swallows flies over, their shadows crossing
his face. He bends over and gathers flowers.
He makes a wreath. Will he put it on?

Yannis Ritsos          

from Correspondences (1987) [pg 11]       

 (translated by Scott King)

                      

                               

                                              

Kindly, quietly
                                                                                 

he departs,
                                                                               

 gives up his place—
                                                                               

 a place that belongs
                                                                              

  to his statue
                                                                               

with closed lips
                                                                               

with open arms. 

                                                                                                      

     from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 92]

     (translated by Scott King)

          Yannis Ritsos