Dazzled I searched for something
Familiar, since the broad streets
Were unfamiliar to me, where the gold-bejeweled
Patoklos comes rushing down from Tmolus,
Where Taurus and Messogis rise,
And gardens are full of flowers,
Like a quiet fire. The silver snow
Thrives up above in the light,
And the ancient ivy grows
On inaccessible walls,
The stuff of immortal life,
While the solemn palaces
Built by the gods
Are borne by living columns
Of cypress and laurel.
But around Asia's gates
Unshaded sea-paths rush
And pull back and forth
On the unpredictable sea,
Though sailors know where
The islands are.
And when I heard
That one of the islands close by
Was Patmos,
I wanted very much
To put in there, to enter
The dark sea-cave. For unlike
Cyprus, rich with springs,
Or any of the other islands,
Patmos isn’t splendidly situated,
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Tmolus, Taurus and Messogis are mountains in Ionian Greece, today in Western Turkey. Pactolus (now named Sart Çayı), is a river near the Aegean coast of Turkey, famous in legends for its gold ore.
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