Zorba the Greek [antikvár]

I •¦v I FIRST met him in Piraeus. I wanted to take the boat for Crete and had gone down to the port. It was almost daybreak and raining. A strong sirocco was blowing the spray í, ' ' j from the waves as far as the little café, whose glass doors i : j , ( t were shut. The café reeked of brewing sage and human ' beings whose breath steamed the windows because of the ^ ^ , ; cold outside. Five or six seamen, who had spent the night ' H there, muffled in their brown goat-skin reefer-jackets, were Í Í drinking coffee or sage and gazing out of the misty windows ' , at the sea. The fish, dazed by the blows of the raging waters, had taken refuge in the depths, where they were waiting till i calm was restored above. The fishermen crowding in the cafés were also waiting for the end of the storm, when the fish, reassured, would rise to the surface after the bait. Soles, hog-fish and skate were returning from their noctiunal expeditions. Day was now breaking. The glass door opened and there entered a thick-set, mud-bespattered, weather-beaten dock labourer with bare head and bare feet. 'Hi! Kostandi!' called out an old sailor in a sky-blue cloak. 'How are things with you?' Kostandi spat. 'What d'you think?' he replied testily. 'Good morning - the bar! Good night - my lodgings! That's the sort of life I'm leading. No work at all!' Some started laughing, others shook their heads and swore. 'This world's a life-sentence,'said a man with a moustache who had picked up his philosophy from the Karagiozis* theatre. 'Yes, a life-sentence. Be damned to it.' * Karagheuz, or Karagoz, meaning 'Black Eyed'. A puppet shadow- , play given in cafés and convmon to Arabia, Turkey, Syria and North ! ', i ; Africa. These plays were the only dramatic performances known to ' i ' ¦ i J ¦ * I.(