Opening paragraphs.............................

      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 from the waves as far as the little cafe, whose glass doors were shut.  The cafe 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 there, muffled in their brown goatskin reefer-jackets, were 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 calm was restored above.  The fishermen crowding in the cafes 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 nocturnal expeditions.  Day was now breaking.

-Nikos Kazantzakis,  Zorba The Greek