THE WINDOWS
In these dark rooms where I spend
leaden days, I go up and down
looking for the windows.—To open
one would be a great consolation.—
But they are nowhere to be found, or I can not
find them. And perhaps it is better that I don’t.
Perhaps their light will be a new tyranny.
Who knows what it will reveal?
Poem by Kostas Hatzopoulos
BLURRY EVENING
The evening comes, blear
and sad and faint,
my pain’s but your caress
since you believe I hurt
it tells your legend
softly to the evening
and cries as it narrates
like the echo of a song
or like a bell that breaks
with a slow, soft weeping
as it calls me to the street
and I call you too.
Engraving Elke Rehder
Christmas
Since the sky is empty
the earth has become fuller
With a thousand electric stars
and bargains with which retailers lure
Shepherds preach long
instead of angels sing the CDs
Even without the three sages
there are royal gifts
However, a child is born
the Messiah is not present
Anyway, it is a man who wishes
that heaven would not be so empty.
Georg Schwikart, Germany (1964)
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑ
Άδειασε ο ουρανός και γέμισε η γη
χιλιάδες ηλεκτρικά φώτα
και προσφορές να ελκύσουν τον πελάτη
οι ποιμένες μακρολογούν
σαν άγγελοι οι δισκέττες τραγουδούν
και δίχως μάγους
τα βασιλικά δώρα προσφέρονται
Κι όμως, ένα βρέφος γεννήθηκε
ο Μεσίας απουσιάζει
κι ο άνθρωπος παρακαλεί
να ξαναγεμίσει ο Παράδεισος
Μετάφραση Μανώλη Αλυγιζάκη// translated by Manolis Aligizakis
Manolis Aligizakis 