Einstein

Where are you going in that cloud of hair?
Your pure mind reached and held the perfect note
to counterpoint your animal desire,
leaving those terrified of dark in doubt.

You saw as one, infinity and nought
and chaos (‘shady garden of the void’)
blossomed forth resplendent in your thought
with wilderness and city unified.

Beyond thisness and elseness, here and there,
radiant and magnificent you rowed
into the universe’s heart of dark

where no rain ever falls, or sleet or snow,
and time itself lies open everywhere,
a wide and waveless ocean, dense and black.

Translated by Richard Berengarten and Paschalis Nikolaou

The Perfect Order is the first extensive selection of Nasos Vayenas's poems to appear in English. Spanning thirty-six years from 1974 to 2010, it covers every phase of his long and varied writing career – from the first registrations of his poetic voice, then as a leading member of the 'Generation of the Seventies', to his latest series of deeply felt, witty and urbane sonnets in honour of writers whom he loves, including Byron, Borges, Eliot, Cavafy and Seferis.

Also included are samples of his theoretical and critical writings, which provide both a foil and a context to his poems.

The book is introduced by the distinguished Hellenist David Ricks of King's College, London.

Translations by: Roderick Beaton, Richard Berengarten, John Chioles, Robert Crist, Alan Crosier, John Davis, Kimon Friar, Margaret Kofod, Paschalis Nikolaou, David Ricks, John Stathatos and Chris Williams.