Yannis Ritsos

 

In the Depths

He saw the diver stir deep down in the water
with soft, carnal movements. Beyond 
he saw the clay penis and the statue's feet  
stepping firmly on the sea floor. And he also saw
the clay woman spread out, waiting,  
one knee slightly raised, with a red,
totally red fish on her belly. Except 
that the seaweed didn't move, there was no seaweed,  
and the coin they threw in from above descended slowly
until it stopped a hand's width from the woman's mouth.  

Yannis Ritsos (1909-1990): In the Depths, 1971, from The Wall Inside the Mirror, translated by Edmund Keeley in Yannis Ritsos: Exile and Return, Selected Poems 1967-1974, 1985