eleven
The Black Myth
and the White
of generations
and races
became history
Hysteria became Myth
half of them forgot their origin
the rest of their destination
Ugga
Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume III
21st of November
Another Sunday. Headache.
Too many cigarettes. Smoke. The windows
don’t open.
I don’t have but a week of rain and shells of cracked
almonds.
The faint light through the window; six pieces of ice.
The wick of the lamp, I don’t know, looks like inverted
silence. I count the squares of the blanket. All day long
I think that a basket of bread is nothing but a basket
of bread. I contemplate on this though I can’t believe it
because, why the buttons of our shirts get loose and
when the nights walk out in the roads, how do we find
the nails of the stars in the holes of the washrooms
every morning?
Troglodytes
III
Shadows of the living dead
calligraphically dangling
from the turrets of the castle
tortured aspirations hanging
from the insignia of palaces
groans hymned by untamed heroes
in the sunless dungeons into
which the brave becomes braver
and the weak become weaker.
Choir and its antiphony, two opposing
rivulets yet both trickling to the same river
merge into the most accepting ocean.
Kneel and forever fear me,
the day’s command laments
kneel and forever fear me,
the greediest ghetto decrees
kneel and forever fear me,
the ancient symbol commands
kneel and forever fear me,
decrees the greediest headmaster
with his golden tiara and
the gleaming chasuble.
Tasos Livaditis – Selected Poems
Perverted Passion
Someday I’ll remember something so nice; it’ll be
autumn in that narrow side street with the glass shops, where
father sold dream books after he went bankrupt — since then
I never got out of the dream, although I was cold; at least I could
fall back onto my perverted passion: melancholy or crowding.
Because, let’s be honest, I never loved anybody and this tender
glance of mine was just for personal use
like the immortality of the poets.
Titos Patrikios
VII
From the badly stuccoed walls of twilight
the oil, the kitchens of the poor houses,
the orphanage, the groomed village boys
of the stars,
life never stops coming like heavy rain
of flags and wheat.
Our glance, a fish with excellent memory
swims in the tight veins of the sky.
You love the marble, the clay, the old freedom
of the trees, all the elements and their combinations
all the geometry of the stars —
you love not to love
but to carry your love further.
You love life.
You love motion, a blind insect, an animal
from the other side of time that has lost you,
you love all the dirt path we’ve passed together.
You love man.
You love sadness, a spring that widens the contour
of lips, two gnarled, forgotten hands,
you know and love man
so that you will gather drop by drop
seed after seed
stone after stone
an act after an act
his true self
scattered amid the pollen and rivers
lost amid the furniture and movie theaters.
They run, they run with a few sobs in their embrace
to get satiated by the leftovers of the wind
to fool the cold with their rags of truth —
no I’ll never be able to see the fluid metal of his enclosed
hands in every man again
a life overworked by life.
We must march on.
Nikos Engonopoulos – Poems
Poetry 1948
this season
of the civil war
is not time
for poetry
if something
is written
it is as if
it was written
on the other side
of death
announcements
for this reason
my poems
are so sad
(Besides, when weren’t they?)
and they are
especially
just a few
Hours of the Stars
Christening
The parents remember
the long faces of grandfather and grandmother
and they feel guilty
how can you call
Adeadatos instead of Theodoros
and Precious instead of Diotima
as if the godparents were
demons and pagans?
Red in Black
Silence
Invincible silence in side streets
abandoned, unprofitable factories
complacency that prepares
the nation for war
force of universal good
the leader said they represented
blonde hair shone in the gleam
of sundown, purple dusk
vein severed from logic
undoubted silence of mass media
isolated incidents of violence reported
anchor concentrated on the divorce
of famous cinema power couple
nation preparing for another war
its rightful right, being
the force of universal good
George Seferis
II Child
When I started growing up the trees horrified me,
why do you smile? Did your mind go to spring that
is so rough for children?
I liked the green leaves a lot
I think I learned a little at school because the blotting-paper
on my desk was also green
the roots of the trees tormented me when in the warmth of winter
they would come and coil around my body
I had no other dreams when I was a child
that’s how I came to know my body.
Swamped
excerpt
…fifteen or so big commercial ships anchored in the bay, and on the
far side of the water at beautiful Stanley Park and further off the Kitsilano
district and the UBC lands to their right, the green thickets of
trees, the roofs of houses, the big apartment buildings, and above
them the airplanes descending slowly as they approached the airport
in flat, distant Richmond, all such familiar sights and yet as fresh and
fascinating every day as if never enjoyed before. Eteo and Ariana
seemed to register the view in the logbook of their souls, tuned to
the same sounds and echoes, to the same relaxation methods and to
the same fiery lovemaking, to the same thoughts and wishes. Their
souls were in tune.
The following Saturday Eteo picked Ariana up from her apartment
and drove to BC Place and the private room Pacific Trends had
rented for the year. A few other people were already there: the vice
president of Pacific Trends, Lucas Stonewall, and his girlfriend, Isabel,
the head trader John with his wife Ekaterina, the head of the accounting
department Dean Magnusen with his girlfriend and two other
women. While the introductions were in progress, Bradley came in
with his girlfriend, a woman of South Asian heritage called Pari.
Other guests soon followed, and in a few minutes the room was full.
The drinks flowed freely and everyone had something in their hands
while they chitchatted and laughed. Eteo sided up to Bradley and
proudly introduced Ariana to him
“So you’re the one who has brought a smile back to Eteo’s lips,”
Bradley quipped as he shook Ariana’s hand. “I’m very pleased to meet
you.”
Ariana only smiled and blushed at his comment.
Before the game started, Bradley took a moment to address them
all.
“I wanted to inform you that this week’s success goes to Eteo,
who introduced Pacific Trends to a new venture, Platinum Properties,
which has made the firm some good money already, and we hope
will make a lot more in the weeks and months to come. Cheers to
Eteo, then. This has been his week.”
“Not bad for a Cretan immigrant,” Bradley called out with a
laugh, “and yes, recommend Platinum to all your clients,”…
Manolis Aligizakis 