I
Greetings Acropolis
Tourkolimeno and you Voukourestiou
The polar star
Sends the beams
Of its light
Towards the central
Nub of the cosmos.
O Athens, the foremost
In the depths
Of the Ages,
The fishermen
Peer at you
Through their
Underwater glasses,
The galleys
And the limousines
And the brothels
The secret service
In the centre,
The polar star
Spins around
Eternally
And the stack
From the kitchen chimney flue
Sends a blackened
Cloud of smoke
Towards the central core
Of all the universe.
O Pleiades, O Aphrodite
O Dina, O Soula, O Eva, O Irene
Fifty million years go by
At the speed of light
And a constant line
Threads its way through
Fifty thousand million galaxies
Time eternal.
Just five small metres
Just five small metres
Five hundred centimetres
From my prison cell.
II
And time evaporates
Within a moment
The smallest thing will become
The greatest tyrant of them all
The greatest tyrant of them all
It is torture for the unfolding wounds
They smile as they smother us with empty promise
Of something else - this something else
For which we live every hour of the day
Believing that we're living another
Believing that we're living another
However there is not any other life
We are, we are, our own destiny
That looks at us obliquely - Sphinx
Oblivious of the mystery
We do not have anything
To understand anything
To understand of mystery
There is no way
For us to run away
From the burning fire
The circle
Of the sun and of the ring of death
Of the sun and of the ring of death
Of fhe sun and of the ring of death
III
O sun, I will stare into your eyes
Till the time comes when my vision
Is all dried up, is all dried up
Till my eyes are filled like craters
Full of ashes, just like craters
On the moon, beyond the universe,
Energy and time
Lost and lonely shooting star
Shooting star all extinguished
Since time eternal, since time eternal
Sentenced and condemned
To listen to the voices
Of the people
To inhale the putrescence
Of dead flowers
Man is dead! Long live Man!
Man is dead! Long live Man!
VII
All the cells are breathing
Both the cells that find themselves on high
And the cells that find themselves down below
And the rain reunites us
The sun was ashamed to appear, Nikos
Yorgos, I'm just holding on to a flower
IX
Down on the earth, scattered
The Law of the Law, oh Law!
The Law does not collide with the void
With a helmet on he smokes
Filter cigarettes,
In silk pyjamas
He does not
The hamlets, the forests and the paddy fields
smoke
Mothers do not smoke
Soldiers smoke before they fall asleep
Sleeping deeply for an age or two
I smoke before I die
I always smoke before I die
Sertika cigarettes from Lamia, aromatic cigarettes
from Xanthi
Sweet smell just before the end
The end has a sweet smell
Aromatic cigarettes from Xanthi, Sertika cigarettes
from Lamia.
XVIII
As I lay down on the beach
The bathers ran into the sea
As I went down to the sea
The bathers returned to the shore
As I drowned
The bathers went home
And when I rose from the dead
It had already grown late
And the bathers were driving away
XX
Above the gardens of paradise that are inside
my skull
A yellow sun will be rising on the wings of Time
And little birds with wooden wings follow on
While up ahead the angels fly on jets
A magnificent procession over the banana plants,
Eucalyptus trees and pines that cover up
All that's on the left-hand side
Of my brain, of my brain
On the right side are the nymphs
And celestial concubines
Undercover under jasmine, reddish lizards
Listen to the water falling
Draining down into the sewers
Of my spinal chord, my spinal chord
To where the earth has its beginning
And the universe its end
Suddenly the magnificent procession
Is grinding to a standstill
Six o'clock in the afternoon
Six o'clock on the dot
Nothing moves
The procession, and the sun and the time
Only the little birds travel on
They're flapping with their wooden wings
They're flapping with their wooden wings
And the jets lament
Even they lament like angels do
And the jets lament
Even they lament like angels do.
XXIV
And when I hear you cry
I softly sleep
And when you are in pain
You will find me yawning
And when your mind's consumed with fear
I'll be scratching myself
September, upon the sixteenth day
Of the creation
Dionysos
XXV
And on the fourth floor up above
Your mama is sleeping
Helena
Music of the gods
Within her dreams
In her dreams
Within her dreams
Pepino di Capri
Way beyond the silent sea
Oh do not wake her
XXVII
September the sixth
Eleven o'clock in the morning
The birds are bathing now
The birds are bathing now
Bathing now
In the rivers
The north wind
Is whistling
Through the fir trees
You were attacked
By the Turkish
At Bizani
Now you sit there, you're looking at me
Drinking coffee
Cruel and bitter
Oh my love, oh my love
The sunshine bakes
The grapevines at
Eleven o'clock
In the morning
Eleven o'clock
In the morn
In the morning
Eleven o'clock
In the morning.
XXVIII
Suleiman the Magnificent
Constantinos Palaeologos
Hold your tongue and stop your crying
You smuggler, you procurer, you thief
Your swollen vocal chords
Andreas, Elias, Anthi
The sound of animals
The sound of man
O Saint Sophia
Barbaric hordes
And Greek fire
The old man of Morea - a worm
At every step I trip and stumble
On the left the beasts of Borneo
On the right the flames of Nagasaki
Ahead the kilns of Buchenwald
Behind the prison-cell of Makrijanni
Up and down and up and down
Out towards the east and the west
The drawn knives
The horse whips
The sharpened spears
The hordes, the hordes of saints
And the hordes of demons
The hordes of saints
The hordes of generals
I'm a dandelion
That's planted on a crater
Goodbye the sun
Goodbye the sun
Goodbye the sun
Goodbye to the light
And so good night.
Translated by © Tim Dowdall, 1997
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