"THRUSH

Ephemeral issue of a vicious daemon and a harsh fate,
why do you force me to speak of things that it would be better for you
not to know.

SILENUS TO MIDAS*

I

The house near the sea*

The houses I had they took away from me. The times
happened to be unpropitious: war, destruction, exile;
sometimes the hunter hits the migratory birds,
sometimes he doesn't hit them. Hunting
was good in my time, many felt the pellet;
the rest circle aimlessly or go mad in the shelters.

Don't talk to me about the nightingale or the lark
or the little wagtail
inscribing figures with his tail in the light ...

~ George Seferis,
From "Thrush"

http://greece.poetryinternational.org/cwolk/view/17988