The Companions in Hades
fools, who ate the cattle of Helios Hyperion;
but he deprived them of the day of their return.
— Odyssey
Since we still had some hardtack
how stupid of us
to go ashore and eat
the Sun’s slow cattle,
for each was a castle
you’d have to battle
forty years, till you’d become
a hero and a star!
On the earth’s back we hungered,
but when we’d eaten well
we fell to these lower regions
mindless and satisfied.
Copyright Credit: George Seferis, "The Companions in Hades" from Collected Poems (George Seferis). Translated, edited, and introduced by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Copyright © 1995 by George Seferis. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.
Source: George Seferis: Collected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1995)