Kostas Karyotakis - Tombs

Helen S. Lamari, 1878-1912
Poet and musician.
Died with the most frightful pains of the body
and with the greatest calm of the spirit.
—ATHENIAN CEMETERY


What peace reigns here!
As though the tombs also smile,
while the dead speak quietly
in capitals, deep in the dark.

From there they want to rise with
simple words into our peaceful hearts.
But their complaint, or what it is they say,
- they've gone so far away - is useless.

It's all there is, there, two crossed bars
of wood, Martzokis. There Vasiliadis,
just a big stone book.

And a plaque half-hidden in the grass
- thus now it's symbolised by Hades -
there's Lamaris, a forgotten poet.

Kostas Karyotakis

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tombs-2/