Fast Day 297 February 10 2013 Mother of Patmos

Mother of Patmos

με την χαριν τησ παναγιασ
"Thanks to the Holy Virgin"

As the Greeks often say,
now and in the past,
along the blue Aegean where
sails the ship of John,
the island Patmos,
within the Icarian Sea
with its wax-concreted wings
that droop like shrouds -
the halyards of the artemon.

The name "panagia"
does not mean "virgin",
but "all holy".

As the ancient used to say,
before the birth of History,
when they sought the plumaged bird -
as one doth pursue and hunt
a partridge in the mountains -
the mother of Icarus,
son of wooden Daedalus;
holy land maritime...
O, navicula autem sum.


--
notes

με την χαριν τησ παναγιασ     =     Thanks to the Holy Virgin


navicula autem sum     =     I am but a small boat