Three Pieces from Archilochos, the ancient Greek poet, translated by Guy Davenport:
With ships so trim and narrow,
Ropes fast and sails full,
I ask of the gods that
Our comrades have a wind too,
That they meet neither tall wave
Nor reef.
All fortune be with them.
Let us hide the sea-king's gifts,
The wrecked dead Poseidon brings.
Their lives
Held in the arms
Of the waves.
--Archilochos
from Guy Davenport's 7 Greeks,
A New Directions Book: New York, 1995.
(I've posted shots of this sculpture in the past here.)
