George Vizyenos – The Dream

George Vizyenos – The Dream

(Translated by Timothy Adès)

Last night I saw all in my sleep
a river deep:
God let it not come true!
Silent as night beside the flood,
moon-pale, there stood
a young man whom I knew.

– – –

With force the stormwind striving
and smiting
near drove him from the living;
waves sucked his feet with kisses,
inviting
him down to their embraces.

– – –

Not by the storm I thought him
mistreated,
despairing wretch forsaken.
To snatch him safe I speeded,
nor caught him:
abruptly he was taken.

– – –

I stooped towards the river,
him to discover:
my own pale corpse I knew!
Last night I saw all in my sleep
a river deep:
God let it not come true!

George Vizyenos (or Georgios Vizyinos) was one of the best Greek novelists and poets. Some of his books translated in English (if anyone wants to read them) are: My Mother’s Sin And Other Stories, The Only Journey Of His Life, Who Was My Brother’s Killer? and Moskov Selim . Although he is famous in Greece for his novels, he also wrote essays on psychology and philosophy. He studied in Germany and he was a student of the famous psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. His ending was a tragic one: he ended up in an insane asylum in Athens, where he died in 1896. He was 47 years old.