Nights Without Hope (Rebetiko Song), By Yannis Papaionnou

Late nights without hope

I walk the streets alone.

Before your shuttered window

I spend sad hours.

How I long to meet you

to find old joys again,

again to give you kisses

so black despair will leave.

But who knows where you wander

there in some foreign land.

I wonder if you think of me

or suffer for someone else.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY GAIL HOLST-WARHAFT

From “World Poetry,” edited by Katharine Washburn, John S. Major and Clifton Fadiman (W.W. Norton: 1,338 pp., $45)