Constantine Cavafy

ΤΥΑΝΕΥΣ  ΓΛΥΠΤΗΣ

 

Καθώς πού θά τό ακούσατε, δέν είμ’ αρχάριος.

Κάμποση πέτρα από τά χέρια μου περνά.

Καί στήν πατρίδα μου, τά Τύανα, καλά

μέ ξέρουνε  κ’ εδώ αγάλματα πολλά

μέ παραγγείλανε οι συγκλητικοί.

 

Καί νά σάς δείξω

αμέσως μερικά. Παρατηρείστ’ αυτήν τήν Ρέα

σεβάσμια, γεμάτη καρτερία, παναρχαία.

Παρατηρείστε τόν Πομπήϊον. Ο Μάριος

ο Αιμίλιος Παύλος, ο Αφρικανός Σκιπίων.

Ομοιώματα, όσο πού μπόρεσα, πιστά.

Ο Πάτροκλος (ολίγο θά τόν ξαναγγίξω).

Πλησίον στού μαρμάρου τού κιτρινωπού

εκείνα τά κομάτια, είν’ ο Καισαρίων.

 

Καί τώρα καταγίνομαι από καιρό αρκετό

νά κάμω έναν Ποσειδώνα. Μελετώ

κυρίως γιά τ’ άλογά του, πώς νά πλάσσω αυτά.

Πρέπει ελαφρά έτσι νά γίνουν πού

τά σώματα, τά πόδια των νά δείχνουν φανερά

πού δέν πατούν τήν γή, μόν τρέχουν στά νερά.

 

Μά νά τό έργον μου τό πιό αγαπητό

πού δούλεψα συγκινημένα καί τό πιό προσεκτικά

αυτόν, μιά μέρα τού καλοκαιριού θερμή

πού ο νούς μου ανέβαινε στά ιδανικά

αυτόν εδώ ονειρευόμουν τόν νέο Ερμή.

 

 

 

SCULPTOR OF TYANA

 

 

As you may have heard, I am not a beginner.

Some good quantity of stone goes through my hands.

And in my home country, Tyana, they know me

well; and here the senators have ordered

a number of statues from me.

 

Let me show you

some right now. Have a good look at this Rhea;

venerable, full of forbearance, really ancient.

Look closely at Pompey. Marius,

Aemilius Paulus, the African Scipio.

True resemblances, as true as I could make them,

Patroklos (I’ll have to touch him up a bit).

Close to those pieces

of yellowish marble over there, is Caesarion.

 

And for a while now I have been busy

creating a Poseidon. I carefully study

his horses in particular, how to shape them.

They have to be so light that their bodies,

their legs, show that they don’t touch

the earth, but run over water.

 

But here is my most beloved creation,

that I worked with such feeling and great care

on a warm summer day,

when my mind ascended to the ideals,

I had a dream of him, this young Hermes.

 

 

~ CONSTANTINE CAVAFY — SELECTED POEMS, translated by Manolis Aligizakis, Ekstasis Editions., Victoria, BC, 2014

Kostas Karyotakis

ΣΕ ΠΑΛΑΙΟ ΣΥΜΦΟΙΤΗΤΗ

Φίλε, ἡ καρδιά μου τώρα σὰ νὰ ἐγέρασε.
Τελείωσεν ἡ ζωή μου τῆς Ἀθήνας,
ποὺ ὅμοια γλυκὰ καὶ μὲ τὸ γλέντι ἐπέρασε
καὶ μὲ τὴν πίκρα κάποτε τῆς πείνας.

Δὲ θά ῾ρθω πιὰ στὸν τόπο ποὺ ἡ πατρίδα μου
τὸν ἔδωκε τὸ γιόρτασμα τῆς νιότης,
παρὰ περαστικός, μὲ τὴν ἐλπίδα μου,
μὲ τ᾿ ὄνειρο ποὺ ἐσβήστη, ταξιδιώτης.

Προσκυνητὴς θὰ πάω κατὰ τὸ σπίτι σου
καὶ θὰ μοῦ ποῦν δὲν ξέρουν τί ἐγίνης.
Μ᾿ ἄλλον μαζὶ θὰ ἰδῶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτη σου
κι ἄλλοι τὸ σπίτι θά ῾χουν τῆς Εἰρήνης.

Θὰ πάω πρὸς τὴν ταβέρνα, τὸ σαμιώτικο
ποὺ ἐπίναμε γιὰ νὰ ξαναζητήσω.
Θὰ λείπεις, τὸ κρασί τους θά᾿ ναι ἀλλιώτικο,
ὅμως ἐγὼ θὰ πιῶ καὶ θὰ μεθύσω.

Θ᾿ ἀνέβω τραγουδώντας καὶ τρεκλίζοντας
στὸ Ζάππειο ποὺ ἐτραβούσαμεν ἀντάμα.
Τριγύρω θά ῾ναι ὡραῖα πλατὺς ὁ ὁρίζοντας,
καὶ θά ῾ναι τὸ τραγούδι μου σὰν κλάμα.

 

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.

 

Kostas Karyotakis//NEOHELLENIC POETRY—AN ANTHOLOGY, Libros libertad, 2016

 

www.manolisaligizakis.com

Odysseus Elytis

 

ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΕΣ ΠΑΝΩ ΣΕ ΜΙΑΝ ΑΧΤΙΔΑ

 

ΚΟΚΚΙΝΟ

 

Το στόμα που είναι δαίμονας μιλιά κρατήρας

Φαί της παπαρούνας αίμα του καημού

Που είναι μεγάλο κίμινο της άνοιξης

Το στόμα σου μιλάει με τετρακόσια ρόδα

Δέρνει τα δέντρα λιγώνει όλη τη γη

Χύνει μες στο κορμί την πρώτη ανατριχίλα.

 

Σπουδαία του δάχτυλου ευωδιά το πάθος μου πληθαίνει

Το μάτι μου ανοιχτό πονάει στ’ αγκάθια

Δεν είναι η βρύση που ποθεί των δυό στηθιών τα ορνίθια

Όσο το βούισμα της σφήκας στους γυμνούς γοφούς.

 

Δώστε μου την ουλή του αμάραντου τα μάγια

Της κλώστρας κοπελλιάς

Το αντίο, το έρχομαι, το θα σου δώσω

Σπηλιές υγείας να το πιούνε στην υγεία του ήλιου

Ο κόσμος θα `ναι ή ο χαμός ή το διπλό ταξίδι

Εδώ στου ανέμου το σεντόνι εκείστου απείρου τη θωριά

 

Βίτσα τουλίπα μάγουλο της έγνοιας

Σπλάχνο δροσάτο της φωτιάς

Θα ρίξω ανάσκελα το Μάη θα τον σφίξω στα μπράτσα μοτ

Θα τον δείρω τον Μάη θα τον σπαράξω.

 

 

 

VARIATIONS ON A SUNBEAM

 

RED

 

The mouth which is demon word crater

food of the poppy blood of anguish

which is the great cumin of spring

your mouth speaks with four hundred roses

beats the trees overwhelms the whole earth

pours the first shiver in the body

 

Great fragrance of the finger multiplies my passion

my open eye hurts on the thorns

it isn’t much the fountain that desires the two fowl-breasts

as the buzzing of a wasp on naked hips.

 

Give me the scar of amaranth the spells

of the girl who spins

the goodbye the I’m coming the I’ll give you

caves of health will drink it to the sun’s health

the world will be either the loss or the double voyage

here in the wind’s sheet there in the infinity’s gaze.

 

Cane tulip cheek of concern

cool offspring of fire

I’ll throw May on his back I’ll squeeze him in my arms

I’ll beat May I’ll tear him up.

 

 

Translated by Manolis Aligizakis

 

www.manolisaligizakis.com

 

Yannis Ritsos//Γιάννης Ρίτσος

ΣΕ ΔΥΟ ΕΠΙΠΕΔΑ

 

Αυτή η ωραία, αναρριχητική τριανταφυλλιά, πλαγιασμένη

στη σιδεροδεσιά—μ’ ένα βαθύτερο κόκκινο, μεταποιημένο

(ποιός ξέρει από ποιά μυστική διεργασία) σ’ ένα χρώμα

ευγενικά τριανταφυλλί, πρός τό ασημί,—λάμπει ακέρια

τούτες τίς μέρες τής άνοιξης, φωτίζει τήν πέτρινη σκάλα,

τούς έξω τοίχους, ώς καί μέσα τά μπρίκια τής κουζίνας,

 

μόνο πού τούτος ο σπάταλος πλούτος φέρνει στή μνήμη

εκείνα τά παλιά (καί τά μελλοντικά) φθινόπωρα, τότε

πού τά πλακάκια τής αυλής, η αποθήκη, η στέρνα,

ώς καί τά πάνω δωμάτια, η βιβλιοθήκη, τά κρεββάτια,

γεμίζουν πέταλα ξερά, κοτσάνια, αγκάθια, φύλλα,

καί χρειάζεται νά τά σαρώνεις κάθε τόσο.

Γι’ αυτό

όταν εκφράζουμε στήν οικοδέσποινα τό θαυμασμό μας

γιά τήν ωραία της τριανταφυλλιά—τί χρώμα, τί λάμψη—

εκείνη μόλις πού χαμογελά μ’ έναν τρόπο θλιμμένο

κι απόμακρο, σάμπως τό μόνο πού θά επιθυμούσε νάταν

ένα πολύ λεπτό δαχτυλίδι στό μικρό δάχτυλό της.

 

 

ON TWO LEVELS

 

This beautiful, climbing rosebush, leaning

on the iron frame – a transformed deep red color

(who knows from what secret mixing) a hue

gracefully rosy, yet closer to silver – shines

these spring days, lights the marble stairs

the outside walls, even inside the small kitchen pots;

 

only that this wasteful wealth brings to mind

those old (and future) autumns when

the yard tiles, the storage room, the cistern,

even the upstairs rooms, the library, the beds,

fill with dry petals, stems, thorns, leaves,

and you need to sweep them so often.

For this reason

when we express our admiration to the lady of the house

for her beautiful rosebush – what a color, what a shine –

she just smiles in a certain sorrowful and remote way

as if she would prefer that it was

a very delicate ring on her pinkie finger.

 

 

Γιάννη Ρίτσου-Ποιήματα/Μετάφραση Μανώλη Αλυγιζάκη

Yannis Ritsos-Poems/Translated by Manolis Aligizakis

 

www.manolisaligizakis.com

 

Γιάννης Ρίτσος//Yannis Ritsos

ΑΠΟΦΥΓΗ ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΗΣ

 

Πώς έμειναν έτσι χωρίς νόημα μες στο ήσυχο απόγευμα

οι ωραίες γραμμές των λόφων, οι φωνές απ’ τ’ αμπέλια,

τα δυο λεωφορεία στον απέναντι δρόμο, πίσω απ’ τα ηλιοτρόπια,

τα λιόδεντρα, μισά στο φως, μισά στον ίσκιο, το ρολόι της εκκλησίας,

κι αυτός που πριονίζει αόρατος—πιθανόν ένα δέντρο

ή το σκαμνί της κωφάλαλης γριάς ή το μεγάλο τραπέζι

του παλιού πυρπολημένου πανδοχείου. Και τ’ άλογο ακόμη

που φάνηκε μέσα στις κίτρινες καλαμποκιές — δεν ξέρω

τί ν’ απαντήσω, δεν ξέρω γιατί. Και το φως κοκκινίζει,

και το μενεξεδένιο αχνίζει λίγο λίγο τα βουνά και τα χαρτιά μου.

 

 

AVOIDING TO ANSWER

 

How the beautiful lines of hills, the voices from vineyards

remained so meaningless in the quiet afternoon,

the two buses on the opposite street, behind the heliotropes,

the olive trees, half in the sunlight, half in the shade, the church clock

and the one who saws quite unseen – a tree perhaps

or the stool of the deaf old woman or the big table

of the old burnt-up hostel. And even the horse

that appeared amid the yellow corn fields – I don’t know

what to answer; I don’t know why. And the light turns red,

and the violet slowly steams up the mountains and my papers.

 

 

 

YANNIS RITSOS — POEMS, Ekstasis Editions, 2013

ΓΙΑΝΝΗ ΡΙΤΣΟΥ — Ποιήματα/Μετάφραση Μανώλη Αλυγιζάκη

 

www.manolisaligizakis.com

Tasos Livaditis//Τάσος Λειβαδίτης

 

ΜΕΓΑΛΟΙ βάρβαροι δρόμοι, στις αυλές έσφαζαν τ’ άκακα ζώα,

πίσω απ’ τις κολόνες οι δανειστές κοίταζαν χαιρέκακα την πόλη,

έμποροι και πλανόδιοι μάντεις, πάντα κακών, και γυναικόπαιδα

μαύρα στην αγορά

την ώρα που μες στο κύπελλο, που σήκωνε ο συνεπαρμένος να πιεί

έπεφτε άξαφνα

το κλειδί της βασιλείας.

 

 

LONG barbarous roads; in the backyards they slaughtered

the harmless animals; behind the columns lenders gazed the city

spitefully; merchants and travelling seers always of bad omens

and black women and children in the agora

at the hour when inside the cup that the enraptured raised to

drink, suddenly the key of kingdom fell.

 

 

~Tasos Livaditis-Poems, translated by Manolis Aligizakis, Libros Libertad, 2014

www.libroslibertad.ca

www.manolisaligizakis.com

 

 

Cloe and Alexandra

ΠΡΟΧΕΙΡΟ ΣΤΡΩΜΑ

 

Αφού έφυγαν οι υπάλληλοι,

αργά το απόγευμα, την περίμενε

στο γραφείο του.

Ξεντύθηκαν, και η λαίμαργη γλώσσα του

έφτασε μέχρι τα πόδια της,

κι όπως ήταν παγωμένα

με το στόμα του τα ζέστανε.

Έσμιξαν στο πάτωμα,

σ’ ένα πρόχειρο στρώμα

από μεγάλα μαξιλάρια του καναπέ.

 

 

 

IMPROVISED BED

 

When the personnel left,

late in the afternoon, he

waited for her in his office.

They stripped naked and his hungry tongue

travelled down to her feet

frozen from the cold

he warmed them with his mouth.

They coupled on the floor,

on an improvised bed made of

the big pillows of the couch.

Cloe and Alexandra, Translated by Manolis Aligizakis, Libros Libertad, 2013

www.manolisaligizakis.com

Cloe and Alexandra//translated by Manolis Aligizakis

ΙΕΡΗ ΠΕΤΡΑ

 

«Κι αν τώρα πέθαινα», είπε αυτός

δεν θάνιωθα ποτέ πιο ζωντανός».

Τα πόδια τους βαθιά στο Λιβυκό

αρχές χειμώνα καλοκαίρι

ήλιος με ξανθές βεντάλιες βλεφαρίδες

τους δρόσιζε στον ουρανό,

μια γριούλα τους φίλεψε ρακή,

η δική της είχε μέσα ροδόνερο και μέλι

«για να γλυκαθείς» της είπε

και γέλασε ένα γέλιο χωρίς δόντια.

 

Γιατί το τέλος

είναι πάντοτε κρυμμένο

στην ίδια του την τελειότητα.

 

 HOLY ROCK

He said, ‘if I die right now

I would have never felt more alive’

Their feet deep in the Lybian Sea

beginning winter-summer

sun with blond fans of eyelids

freshened them up in the sky,

an old woman offered them raki

hers had some honey and rosewater

‘to sweeten you up’ he said

and laughed a toothless laugh.

 

Because the end

is always hidden

in its own perfection.

Cloe and Alexandra, Translated by Manolis Aligizakis, Libros Libertad, 2013

www.manolisaligizakis.com

 

 

 

 

Édouard Schuré

Eduard (Édouard) Schuré (January 21, 1841 in Strasbourg – April 7, 1929 in Paris) was a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, and publicist of esoteric literature.

Biography

Schuré was the son of a doctor in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg, who died when Édouard was fourteen years old. Schuré mastered French as well as German, and was influenced by German and French culture in his formative years. He received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. Schuré called the three most significant of his friendships those with Richard Wagner, Marguerita Albana Mignaty and Rudolf Steiner.[1]
Schuré’s interest and studies led to an extensive knowledge of German literature. The discovery of Wagner’s “music drama” Tristan and Isolde impressed him sufficiently to seek—and obtain—Wagner’s personal acquaintance.
In France, he published his first work Histoire du Lied—a history of the German folk song, which earned him some recognition in the country of his family. With the publication of the essay Richard Wagner et le Drame Musical, he established himself as a major French Wagner expert and advocate of the time.
When the Franco-German war of 1870-71 poisoned the German arts for many French, it would seem that Schuré was not immune from this influence. His nationalism is reflected in his remarks of this time—and later in his life—in a comparison of glorified Celtism (France) and a negatively viewed “Teutonism” (Germany).
On a trip to Italy during this time he met, twenty years his junior, a Greek girl, Marguerita Albana Mignaty, whom he subsequently described as his “muse”, although he himself was married.
After the tide of war had ebbed, Schuré reestablished his relationship with Wagner. In 1873, he met the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; with frequent contact they shared enthusiasm for Wagner. The cultist veneration of Wagner, however, seeded Schuré’s alienation from the composer.
Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric and the occult; his major influence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d’ Olivet. In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered. In 1889, he published, after some smaller works on similar topics, his major work Les Grands Initiés (The Great Initiates).
In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis and The Children of Lucifer). At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher and later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré and Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed and thought of Steiner as an authentic ‘initiate’ in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home and wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, and the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology.[2] Subsequently, Steiner and von Sivers staged Schuré’s esoteric dramas at the following Theosophical Congresses in Berlin and Munich. Schuré’s The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner’s own esoteric dramas.
In 1908 Schuré brought out Le Mystère Chrétien et les Mystères Antiques,[3] a French translation of Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity.[4] With the outbreak of World War I, Schuré’s relationship with Steiner and his wife became strained. Schuré threw in the two secret intentions about Germanic and Pan and stepped out of Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society. Four years after the war, Schuré re-consolidated his friendship with Steiner.
In subsequent years, Schuré published his autobiography.

Esoteric and literary meaning

Schuré’s The Great Initiates is described by some as a masterpiece. In it, he describes the path allegedly followed by some of the ancient philosophers in search of profound esoteric knowledge, often called the “initiation”, as describing the process of becoming a mystic master or spiritual healer.
Those familiar with Rama, Hermes Trismegistus, Socrates, Jesus, Orpheus will find frequent references in Schuré’s work. Schuré pursued the notion that a secret esoteric knowledge was known to them all, that this group were among the pillars of civilization and represented the founders of spiritual and philosophical ways of being as well as in some cases—though contrary to their message—religions. Schuré recognized that the path to a harmonious world was not to be found through a bigoted denial of the value found by other civilizations by their own sages. He wanted people to recognize the value of democracy in spiritual, philosophical, and religious ways. .
Schuré wrote a considerable number of books and plays. His plays enjoyed relative fame in his days in Europe, and some of them were put on stage by Steiner. He also influenced Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

~Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

POETRY EVENT AT THE POLIS ART CAFE–ATHENS