"Greece of the Greeks" says goodbye to the Poet M. Anagnostakis (1925-2005)
EPILOGUE (reads: Anagnostakis Manolis, O Mανόλης Aναγνωστάκης διαβάζει Aναγνωστάκη, Διόνυσος 1977) :
Oι στίχοι αυτοί μπορεί και νά 'ναι οι τελευταίοι ********These verses may be the last ones
Oι τελευταίοι στους τελευταίους που θα γραφτούν **The last of the last ones to get written
Γιατί οι μελλούμενοι ποιητές δε ζούνε πια ************For the oncoming poets are not alive any more
Aυτοί που θα μιλούσανε πεθάναν όλοι νέοι *********All those who would speak died young
Tα θλιβερά τραγούδια τους γενήκανε πουλιά ********Their dolesome songs turned out birds
Σε κάποιον άλλον ουρανό που λάμπει ξένος ήλιος*In another heaven where a stranger sun is shining
Γενήκαν άγριοι ποταμοί και τρέχουνε στη θάλασσα*Turned out wild rivers and now hurtle to the sea
Kαι τα νερά τους δεν μπορείς να ξεχωρίσεις *********And their waters you cannot divide them
Στα θλιβερά τραγούδια τους φύτρωσε ένας λωτός****In their dolesome songs sprouted up a lotus
Nα γεννηθούμε στο χυμό του εμείς πιο νέοι. *********For us to get born in its juice even younger.
Manolis Anagnostakis, the poet with the strong political consciousness, born in 1925 in Thessaloniki (Greece), active member of the Resistance movement and the Civil War, condemned to death by a military court, get prisoned for his ideas and tasted exile for many years, was characterised as the "poet of defeat" for having expressed with his poetry the prospects' disaproval of the Left.
Manolis Anagnostakis - Greece - Poetry International Web
Μανόλης Αναγνωστάκης - Έκθεση βιβλίου της Φρανκφούρτης 2001
Γιατί η ποίηση δεν είναι ο τρόπος
"Η ποίηση είναι έργο της νεότητας. Χρειάζεται ενθουσιασμό, αυταπάτες, ψευδαισθήσεις. Αυτά τα έχουν οι νέοι. Όσο μεγαλώνεις, κατέχεις καλύτερα τα μέσα σου. Γίνεσαι τεχνίτης, αλλά ένα ποίημα δεν χρειάζεται να είναι τέλειο για να είναι καλό. Στο αλλοιωμένο τοπίο της εποχής μας δεν θα ξαναγράψω. Το έργο μου το ολοκλήρωσα. Επιλέγω τη σιωπή."
* * *
THESSALONIKI, DAYS OF 1969 A.D.
In Egyptou Street -first turning right-
There now stands the Transaction Bank Building
Tourist agencies and emigration bureaus
And kids can no longer play with all the traffic
passing
In any case the kids have grown, the times you knew have
passed
They now no longer laugh, whisper secrets, share trust,
Those that survived, that is, as grave illnesses have
appeared since then
Floods, deluges, earthquakes, armoured soldiers;
They remember their fathers’ words: you’ll experience
better daysI
t’s of no importance in the end if they didn’t experience
them, they repeat the lesson to their own children
Always hoping that the chain will one day break
Perhaps with their children’s children or the children of their
children’s children.
For the time being, in the old street as was said, there stands
the Transactions Bank
-I transact, you transact, he transacts-
Tourist agencies and emigration bureaus
-we emigrate, you emigrate, they emigrate-
Wherever I travel Greece wounds me, as the Poet said
Greece with its lovely islands, lovely offices, lovely
churches
Greece of the Greeks.
translated by David Conolly
Poems in greek:
Κλασσικά... Μανώλης Αναγνωστάκης: ποιήματα (Περιγραφής)
Δρόμοι παλιοί - Μανώλης Αναγνωστάκης
Κείμενα Α
posted by E.Nt. @ 9:33 PM
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