The Language Corner 190 – By Georgios I. Villiotis: George Seferis, Last Stop

By Georgios I. Villiotis

George Seferis, Last Stop

«Souls shriveled by public sins,

each holding an office like a bird in its cage.

The rainy autumn in this hollow

festers the wound of each of us

or what you might otherwise call nemesis, fate,

or merely bad habits, guile and deceit,

or even self-interest, to reap the blood of others […]

the thought of man, when he too has ended up as merchandise

try to change it, you cannot […]

A time to sow, a time to reap».

κακοφορμίζω (to fester): said of a pathogenic condition: to cause inflammation in a wound, e.g. the infections festered his wound.

νέμεση (nemesis): 1) Justice, divine retribution: He may have slipped through the grip of the law, but it is certain that nemesis will punish him.

2) Nemesis: An ancient Greek deity, the personification of divine justice, who punished hubris and heinous crimes.

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