the lights, the ikons, the pulpit.When I go there, into a church of the Greeks,with its aroma of incense,its liturgical chanting and harmony,the majestic presence of the priests,dazzling in their ornate vestments,the solemn rhythm of their gestures-my thoughts turn to the great glories of our race,to the splendour of our Byzantine heritage.
his beautiful, delicate face-this figure is Orophernis, son of Ariarathis.A child, they threw him out of Cappadocia,out of his great ancestral palace,and sent him to grow up in Ionia,to be forgotten there among foreigners.Oh those exquisite Ionian nightswhen fearlessly, and entirely in a Greek way,he came to know sensual pleasure totally.In his heart, Asiatic always,but…
Hurriedly sketched, on the ship’s deck,the afternoon magical,the Ionian Sea around us.It’s like him. But I remember him as better looking.He was almost pathologically sensitive,and this highlighted his expression.He appears to me better lookingnow that my soul brings him back, out of Time.Out Of Time. All these things are very old-the sketch, the ship, the…
The Macedonians, Antiochos Epiphanis,the Macedonians are back in the great fight.Let them only win, and I’ll give anyone who wants themthe lion and the horses, the coral Pan,the elegant palace, the gardens of Tyre,and everything else you’ve given me, Antiochos Epiphanis.’The king may have been moved a little,but then he remembered his father, his brother,and…
find another city better than this one.Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrongand my heart lies buried like something dead.How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?Wherever I turn, wherever I look,I see the black ruins of my life, here,where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed…
his vast sexual experienceand the fact that usuallyhis attitude matched his age,in spite of this there were moments-extremely rare, of course- when he gave the impressionthat his flesh was almost virginal.His twenty-nine-year-old beauty,so used by pleasure,would sometimes strangely remind oneof a boy who, somewhat awkwardly, giveshis pure body to love for the first time.
(something like eight pounds a month, including bonuses)-left at the end of the dreary workthat kept him bent all afternoon,came out at seven and walked off slowly,idling his way down the street. Good-looking,and interesting: showing as he did that he’d reachedhis full sensual capacity.He’d turned twenty-nine the month before.He idled his way down the main…
An obstacle was there distortingthe actions and the manner of my life.An obstacle was often thereto stop me when I’d begin to speak.From my most unnoticed actions,my most veiled writing –from these alone will I be understood.But maybe it isn’t worth so much concern,so much effort to discover who I really am.Later, in a more…
where discerning taste and elegance reside—I’ve engraved flowers, streams and thyme,and in their midst a handsome youth,naked and erotic, dangling his legin the water still. I prayed, memory,that I’d find in you an ally strong enough to renderthe face of this youth, whom I loved, just as it once was.It will not be easy, as…
We just begin to get somewhere,begin to gather a little strength,grow almost bold and hopeful,when something always comes up to stop us:Achilles leaps out of the trench in front of usand terrifies us with his violent shouting.Our efforts are like those of the Trojans.We think we’ll change our luckby being resolute and daring,so we move…
