Mixing leisure and repose like wine and water,

Panagiotis of Lindos

by Lawrence Durrell 

Dark birds in nature redevise 

Their linings every year& are not

The less like these weaving fishermen 

Bent so exactly at their tattered seines

On a rotten wharf, their molten catch

Now sold and loaded: though they feather only

For fathoms of sea and the fishes within it,

Needles passing in a surf of lights.

Panagiotis has resigned it all

For an enamel can and olive shade

His concern a tavern prospect, 

Miles of sweet chestnut and borage.

This armament of wine he shares now 

With the greatest philosopher, the least

Inventor, the meanest doctrine of rest,

Mixing leisure and repose like wine and water,

Tutor and pupil in the crater.

His dark sleep is bruised by each 

Sink of the sun below the castle 

Where the Sporades have opened 

Their spokes, and the whole Aegean

In brilliant soda turns the darkening bays.