Tasos Leivaditis (1922–88) was born and raised in Athens, where he worked as a literary critic while also producing a rich poetic oeuvre that would win him both critical and popular renown in Greece. His involvement as a youth in leftist politics led to his internment for more than three years in island prison camps. Soon after his release in 1951 he made his poetic debut, going on to publish over twenty volumes of poetry as well as a collection of short stories, entitled The Pendulum (1966), from which the present submission is taken. (Permission for the translation has been obtained from the author’s grandson and literary executor, Stylianos-Petros Halas.)