23 august 2011

I said to a gypsy girl
I want to be a gypsy
and have you.

Can you eat bitter herbs with no salt
for an evening meal she said to me,
And then lie down?

I can, I said to her.

Can you lie down she said
without weeping with cold
on the frozen mud?

I can, I said to her.

And on that mud she said to me
can you set fire to my body
and burn it up to ash?

And that too if I can, I said to her.

Can you throw my ashes
into your wine she said to me
and get yourself so drunk you forget me?

No, I cannot do that, I said to her.

You will not make a gypsy, she told me.

- Georgis Pavlopoulos, trans. Peter Levi

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