POEM BY KOSTAS KARIOTAKIS

FOR AN OLD FELLOW STUDENT

Now that my heart has aged, my friend

and my years in Athens have passed

sweetly and joyously in parties

and sometimes in the grief of hunger

I won’t ever return to the homeland that

graced me with the celebration of youth

but only as a hoping passerby

traveller with my dream that vanished

a pilgrim I’ll go back to your house

to find out they don’t know where you are.

Along with someone else I’ll meet your Aphrodite

while others will occupy the house of peace.

I’ll go to the tavern to re-order

the Samos wine we used to drink

I’ll miss you and their wine will taste different

yet I’ll drink and I’ll get drunk

singing and staggering I’ll go

to Zappeion where we used to go together

the horizon will be wide open all around

and my song will sound like a lament.

‘Karyotakis-Polydouri: The Tragic Love Story’ poetry translated by Manolis Aligizakis

Διαπίστωση

     Αφού η ιστορία μας ήταν γραμμένη σε σελίδες

απερίγραπτες κι αφού φτάσαμε στο κέντρο

της πόλης σταθήκαμε προσεκτικά ν’ ακούσουμε

τ’ απατηλά πατήματα των τελευταίων κορακιών

κι αφού το τέλος τούτο είχε κιόλας συμφωνηθεί

απ’ τις πάντα αλάθητες Μοίρες καταλάβαμε

πως εμείς είμασταν το σχοινί που πάνω μας

θα περπατούσε ο Υπεράνθρωπος κι εμείς πάλι

οι Υπεράνθρωποι.

     Μες τη φωλιά αετού γεμίσαμε το δισκοπότηρό μας 

και με κουράγιο το τοξεύσαμε στης οικουμένης

τα τέσσερα άκρα κι υποσχεθήκαμε ποτέ θύματα

να μη πέσουμε συστήματος.

Τον κόνδορα κάναμε κληρονόμο όλης της σάρκας.

Τον άνεμο και τη βροχή κάθαρση ονομάσαμε.

      Ευοί, ώ, λεύτερα στοιχεία, ευοί.

     Τελικά πίστεψαν όλοι οι παρευρισκόμενοι

και με φωνή που αντήχησε  στα μισοανοιγμένα

παραθυρόφυλλα, κραύγασαν—

      ‘Αυτοί έχουν κιόλας σωθεί.’  

Ascertainment

Since our history was written on indescribable

pages and since we arrived at the center of town

we stopped and listen carefully to the misleading

footsteps of the last crows and since this end was

already agreed upon by the always unerring Fates

we finally understood: we, the rope upon which

the first steps of Übermensch would be marked

and we again the Übermenschen.

In the eyrie we filled our chalice with courage

and to the four corners of the universe we arrowed it

with a promise never to be trapped in any system’s

idiocy.

The condor we declared heir of the flesh.

The wind and rain we proclaimed our catharsis.

Evoe, oh, free elements, evoe.

People who gathered in the center of the town

agreed and the half opened window shutters shivered

when in one voice the people cried out—

‘These are already saved.’

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In The Name of the Goddess I Summon You

Oil on limbs

perhaps a rancid smell

like here on the oil-press

of the small church

on the rough pores

of the stopped stone.

Oil on the hair

crowned with rope,

and perhaps other perfumes

that we didn’t know

poor and rich

and statuettes offering

small breasts to the fingers.

Oil in the sun

the leaves shivered

when the foreigner stopped

and silence got heavy

between the knees.

The coins fell;

‘In the name of the Goddess I summon you…’

Oil on the shoulders

and the flexing waist

gray legs on the grass, and this wound in the sun

as the bell chimed for vespers

as I spoke in the courtyard

with a crippled man.

Kouklia, Nov `53

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Festivities

There were many dead

those leaden days.

Sorrowful festivities

eulogies, priest always

controlled the tears of women

with his fingers signaling

in front of the altar

matins, red dawns

sometimes a lone crow

wished us a better future

amid prickly pear trees

while daffodils insisted

to always bloom come

each optimistic March

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LONG LISTED FOR THE 2023 GRIFFIN POETRY AWARDS

2023 Longlist Announcement

POEM BY KATERINA GOGOU

TIME WILL COME

Time will come when things will change

remember this, Maria

you remember that game during the school recess

when we run holding the baton

—don’t look at me — don’t cry. You are the hope

listen, time will come                     

when children will select their parents

they won’t be born at random

there won’t be any closed doors

with stooping people outside

and we shall choose our work

we won’t be horses they look at our teeth

people —  think of it —  will talk in colors

others in musical notes

just save in a big jar with water

words and concepts such as

unadjusted, oppression, loneliness, price, gain, humiliation

for the history lesson

times are tough — I don’t want to lie — Maria

and more tough days will come

I don’t know — don’t expect too much from me —

this is what I’ve lived, this I’ve learned, this I’ve said

and from all I read I keep just one:

it only matters to remain a human being

despite all this, Maria,

we’ll change life.

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Fecund Oregano

Neither victory nor defeat

just heat

early this day

heat arrives between your legs

fecund oregano

plays with my nostrils

Neither love nor hate

just indifference

early this evening

indifference arrives in your bosom

fruitful fig romps

my taste buds

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IN DESPAIR

He lost him forever.   And now he seeks

his lips in the lips of every   new lover

in the union with every new lover  

he tries to fool himself

into believing this is the same

young man he gives himself to.

He lost him forever,   as if he never existed.

Because he wanted—he said—to save himself

from the stigmatized,   the unhealthy sensual pleasure;

from the stigmatized,   sensual pleasure of shame.

There was still time—    he said— to save himself.

He lost him forever,   as if he never existed.

In his imagination,   in his delusions

in the lips of other young men   he seeks his lips;

he yearns to feel   that passion again.

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