Bombardment

Four days the earth was rent and torn

By bursting steel.

The houses fell about us;

Three nights we dared not sleep,

Sweating, and listening for the imminent crash

Which meant our death.

The fourth night every man,

Nerve-tortured, racked to exhaustion,

Slept, muttering and twitching, while the shells crashed overhead.

The fifth day there came a hush;

We left our holes

And looked above the wreckage of the earth

To where the white clouds moved in silent lines
Across the untroubled blue.

Silver    Walter de la Mare

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Sickle Selene,

Silver segment,

Shyly shivering,

Scudding silent

through the dark clouds.

Glorious Goddess,

Golden Selene,

Globe-like galleon

Guiding me gladly home.

Pat Mc William

For some people the day comes

when they have to declare the great Yes

or the greatNo. It’s clear at once who has the Yes

ready within him; and saying it,

he goes from honour to honour, strong in his conviction.

He who refuses does not repent. Asked again,

he’d still say no. Yet that no – the right no –

drags him down all his life.

C.P Cavafy   translated by Keeley and Sherrard. from the original Greek (below)

Che fece …. il gran rifiuto Αναγνωρισμένα Σε μερικούς ανθρώπους έρχεται μια μέρα που πρέπει το μεγάλο Ναι ή το μεγάλο το Όχι να πούνε. Φανερώνεται αμέσως όποιος τόχει έτοιμο μέσα του το Ναι, και λέγοντάς το πέραπηγαίνει στην τιμή και στην πεποίθησί του. Ο αρνηθείς δεν μετανοιώνει. Aν ρωτιούνταν πάλι, όχι θα ξαναέλεγε. Κι όμως τον καταβάλλει εκείνο τ’ όχι — το σωστό — εις όλην την ζωή του. (Από τα Ποιήματα 1897-1933, Ίκαρος 1984)