Oh most loved country,
oh wonderful island
Zakynthos; you have given me
the breath of life and the golden gifts of Apollo.

You, too, receive the hymn;
the immortals hate the soul
and thunder against the heads
of the ungrateful.

Never have I forgotten you,
Never! It has been my luck which has cast me
Far from you. One fifth of my life has seen me
in foreign lands.

My fate not grant me
a tomb in a foreign land
Death is sweet only
in our own native land.

Translation by John E. Rexine