The first poem as a seventeen year old

The first poem published at the age of 16 and according to her god father Katzanzakis, he “recommended it so warmly that if I had internalized what he said about my poetry, I would never written thereafter any other poetry”.

The poem of a seventeen year old

The Solitary

United your tears with rain,
Your laughter with sun and wind,
Tornado and rising tide
Of indignation;
Cry for children, barefoot and open-handed
Whose approaching faces glow
In the late afternoon;
And you will find yourself
All alone.

Turn to your fellow men
And in their indifferent eyes
You will find yourself reflected
Desperate but complete
And all alone.

Point out the noblest way,
Implore them to believe
Only in themselves
And their misery will increase
As the task overwhelms them
And you will again
Find yourself alone

Cry out your love
And your hollow call will return empty,
Lacking courage to try the dirty streets,
Tired steps and shut doors.
The trembling voice that you sent out
Will return with words newly discovered
That reveal you are all alone.

O God, what will become of us?
How are we to continue,
To believe, to decide ourselves
When right beside us
Souls sharply expire?

One path only, one means, one victory
Result when we believe,
Become,
Proceed
…all alone.

Katherina Anghelaki-Rooke, Fall 1956
Translated by Karen Van Dyck and Martin Turner

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