Nikos Kavvadias, The pilot Nagel
To the poet N. Rado
Nagel Harbor, Colombo's Norwegian pilot,
after he'd given the course to the ships
as they set off for unknown, distant ports,
would descend to the boat cast down and thoughtful,
his great arms crossed upon his chest,
drawing on a old clay pipe,
muttering in some northern tongue,
and go as the ships went out of sight.
Nagel Harbor, the captain of freighters,
who'd travelled the world, got tired one day,
and stayed as a pilot in Colombo.
But he'd always think of his distant homeland,
and those legendary islands, the Lofoten.
Then one day he died, in the pilot cutter,
just as he'd seen off the steamer "Fjord Folden",
which was smoking its way toward the Lofoten.
Again by Simon.