Translation:The High Mountains/70

This evening I dreamt,

my mother,

I climbed up a high tower,

I entered a garden

And two rivers, flowing

—explain to me mother, this dream.

The tower is my husband,

the garden my marriage.

The two rivers with water

are the families in-law.

Aphrodo was heard to finish the song that she had begun a previous time.

Her voice was light and plaintive, like the melody of a flute.

Her singing was melancholic, but she also sang joyfully, until her song got lost in the woods.

—You hear that, it's Aphrodo! Said Dimitrakis to Lambros as they were having a lesson.

—We're marrying her, said Lambros.

—Really? asked Dimitrakis, as if he didn't believe him.

—We're sending her to a village further away which is called Colombe, on another mountain.

—When?

—Next Sunday.

Dimitrakis went off straightaway to tell the other children. It would have been better not to have known. They were thoughtful, they were very sad.

Only Lambros isn't sad. He's deep in his book. He holds the inkpot that the children had given him tightly in his hand, he holds his pen well and writes.

He writes all by himself. He's sitting down, thinking, and what comes into his head he puts down on paper.

The rain took away quite a lot of things, it took the sugar; but it didn't take Lambros's book.

Here's what he wrote in his notebook the day before yesterday: “I am Lambros Pélékas, son of Antoine of Granitsa, from the county of Aperantios.

“I have a sister Aphrodo and my dog is called Mourgos. And old Athanase is my grandfather. And Dimitrakis is my teacher. And I have a penknife.

“Goats are disobedient animals. Good children go to school and learn how to write. The green oak has the best shade. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I also have an inkpot.

“God be praised, amen.

“Lambros Pelekas son of Antoine of Granitsa”.