"Electra" by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
For Aspassia Papathanassiou

The sounds of summer torment Electra in her solitude
The sun has thrust its lance into the waterless plains
She lets her hair flow loose like lamentations
And her cry resounds through courtyard after courtyard
Where the heat, in columns, shimmers vertical.
Her cry pierces the cicada's song
And, in the sky, disturbs the bronzed silence
Of eagles slowly crossing its path.
Her cry pursues the Furies' pack of hounds
Who search, in vain, for sleep deep within the sepulchres
Or in forgotten corners of the palace

For Electra's cry is the sleeplessness of all things
Exposed
In the open brightness of the out-of-doors
In the hard courtyard sun

That the justice of the gods be summoned forth

Translated from Portuguese by Alexis Levitin