Sokrates Malamas / Σωκράτης Μάλαμας

In my dreams, my deep dreams, I am laughing
seeing your golden eyes – what a liar you are, world! -
between your painted lips I am kissing
all I love and all I forget

You are a dream – Your tormented glance – I lose myself in it
You are a dream – Your miracles your passions – I spend my nights wandering in them
You are a dream

In my dreams, my deep dreams, I am laughing
seeing your warm heart – what a liar you are, world! -
in my thoughts, my lost thoughts, I am talking to you
going by in silence, greeting you

You are a dream – Your tormented glance – I loose myself in it
You are a dream – Your miracles your passions – I spend my nights wandering in them
You are a dream

Είσ’ ένα όνειρο, στις ταραγμένες σου ματιές ξεχνιέμαι
είσ’ ένα όνειρο, στα θαύματα στους πόθους σου
ξενύχτης τριγυρνώ
είσ’ ένα όνειρο.

Vineyards and golden olive groves
You look my Greece as you wish
Fire and wind, at the light of the day.

At once European on the branch
and another an ancient bust
Why, why?

Return and show me your road again
eyes of mine, pieces of mine
like an endless letter which time has erased
with names and colors.

Naked the trees, the branches
and they have flown far
birds and stars, in foreign hands.

That is how it always was you smile at me
children of oblivion we are
and I hear you lost, like being dazed.

Into your sky I want to ascend tonight
To find you
embrace me, let me enter into your darkness
Sorceress, I loved you. (all x2)

Στον ουρανό σου θέλω απόψε ν’ ανεβώ
να σε βρω
αγκάλιασέ με στο σκοτάδι σου να μπω
μάγισσα, σ’ αγάπησα.

The night is bringing up the morning
and the sun is about to show itself
I was little and I forgot
my sweet little bird I lost you

The light closes its nets
and whoever is sleeping alone
acts as if it does not matter
The day resembles a dream

I open my wings on the wind
All that is left of life is one day
is a garden with flowers and snakes
two swallows coming back to the same place

I watch the days pass by
and looking me in the eye
are old sparks I had forgotten
my sweet little bird I lost you

The light closes its nets
and whoever is sleeping alone
acts as if it does not matter
The day resembles a dream

I open my wings on the wind
All that is left of life is one day
is a garden with flowers and snakes
two swallows coming back to the same place

In what shadow do your eyes grow dim
little bird I loved you dearly
the steps in the waves are sinking
if only you were here for dawn to find you

in my clothes I hide you like fire
let them say that I never knew you
it is a dream, our story, my heart
the ghosts return at nights to keep me company.

Give me the light and I’ll pretend that I did not see
give me water to put out the heavy things
whatever has remained thus far of my candle
it is your eyes that burn like fire

in my clothes I hide you like fire
let them say that I never knew you
it is a dream, our story, my heart
the ghosts return at nights to keep me company.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

When a person becomes silent
he falls into the well
the walls of which reflect
and shine in the darkness

There where he sees dimly
and leans upon the heavy things
the work makes a turn
and his mind becomes unglued.

They seem to be rightly in their place
and nicely arranged,
the cries and the joys,
the theaters and the marketplaces,
the mysteries of the world
and the torture chambers.

And you seem like a good morning,
who yesterday bought me fire,
today throw off the threat
and I see a little goddess.

I say the “Ach!” to forget myself,
with this poor boss,
my mind which will not sleep,
it drags me into the difficult things,
it takes me back and forth.

And you seem like a good morning,
And you seem like a good morning.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

It’s expensive, the air you spit out
an expensive drink, and you drink it
Pockets with holes and a stylish t-shirt,
the world’s hard to swallow,
the world’s a light breeze.

Love is fury, love’s a stroke
don’t ask me, red-eyes
At 17 you start getting full of yourself
at 17 no-one can catch up with you
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
in a few years you don’t know where you’re going

A grown-up chump, you set up an office
The banknotes smell like pussy
You sing a lullaby to the widening cleft
you know it well, your life is gone
a contract to the passion that ends

Love’s a gallows, love’s a need
don’t ask me, burnt eyes
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
You’re scared and you know where you’re headed

All assholes in the same boat
rotten age and weakness
Time laughs and glows in bloom
kills people on the street and comes out on top
the thread snaps and you wonder
all those years why all this trouble

Love is ashes, love’s a memory
don’t look at me, old eyes
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
In a few years you know you’ll get old

Goodnight jerk, life is fun
it has wit and fire
it’s like a wheel
it rolls over you and takes you with it
only your prints it drags along

Kαληνύχτα μαλάκα η ζωή έχει πλάκα,
έχει γούστο και φλόγα
είναι κάτι σαν ρόδα:
σε πατάει και σε παίρνει,
μόνο ίχνη σου σέρνει.

It may be that he never truly loved
or it may be that he was, in truth, deluded
taking for love – mere habit

In the empty room and in the cold air
to love you – the only thing that is left to me
to be for you life waiting
to steal, to give to you
to send you, to feel you

Beloved hands like doves,
my journeys to the stars all wasted
Beloved lips so warm
heaven holds no other embrace

I wanna quit thinking about the same things again and again
as if everything was a lie, ashes and charcoals
I want open windows to let the wind in
to have an empty mind
to have the weather on my side

I want you to stop telling me what you’ve been through
It’s not the end of the world if the glass gets a crack
I want you to come and find me, to sit down and talk
about our passionate feelings
about our ignorant lives

I don’t want you to get sad
on sunday evenings
Without this darkness
the years stay empty

I want you to leave, to save yourself, to stop whining
to forget while on your way who you were and what you look like
That’s how I’ll love you a lot and see you a little
Like a distant woman
who I loved before I left

I don’t want you to get sad
on sunday evenings
Without this darkness
the years stay empty

Δε θέλω να πικραίνεσαι
τις Κυριακές τα βράδια
Χωρίς αυτή τη σκοτεινιά
τα χρόνια μένουν άδεια

Nobody knows what the next day will bring us
life is a hidden threat and a star
dance and voices;even if you don’t want to, you say yes before it’s getting dark
a known shadow gives you a hug and you are lost

Open doors closed hearts
empty hugs marked
time steals your steps
scatters your dreams

I’m burning in a glasσ of wine and I’m looking around for you
the city collapsed; devils are loafing about my mind
it’d be better to go far away no matter what happens
but it’s so painfull for him that stays behind

Nothing’s lost
ever by any one
not a star
ever lost its way

nobody suffered
for ever getting lost
nobody ever died
oh beautiful self

And if there are any hard words
these are the beloved ones
if you believe them, goodbye
and i’m leaving quietly

Nothing ever passed
nothing will ever pass
everything happens now
everything in a moment.

Furious life
beautiful day
hard day
a challenge to a life
immortal mortal ones.

I wish to do certain things but i end up doing other
how can i explain it to you
i used to say that years are going by,
i ‘ll get my act together.

But it is completely meaningless
to try and change your character
it’s pointless keeping record of things
it’s pointless forcing yourself into being fair…

Outside the wind is gusting,
though inside me
inside this house
my princess
your glow and the light
are dancing around us
incredible this world
and our character.

I wish to do certain things but i end up doing other
and i got to this point
bad mistakes and passions
turned me to a right person

Crack of dawn on the street
i lay my fishing line
i end up catching myself
and losing my mind

Ξημερώματα στο δρόμο
ρίχνω πετονιά
πιάνω τον εαυτό μου
και χάνω το μυαλό μου.

Investments, advertisements,
contracts and investigations,
times of money-making, bottomless falling,
with fearful gods, with terrorist religions,
with robbers in the yard, unconcerned, foolish.

I pretend not to know, floating with the waves.
There are roads that connect us, and others confuse.

Illusions, hallucinations, commandments and dissentions
changes at the top – the same recipes, guys.
With their wings cut down, their visions framed up -
obscure leaders, voracious stalwarts.

Rentiers, capitalists – investors.
City folks with humbugging titles, moralists, hypocrites
masqueraded as virgins proclaiming abstinence, knaves,
legislators, showmen, generals drowned
in medals, in chevrons, in “Order of the Redeemer” decorations.
Touts in the “skiladika”* clubs.

Television hoaxes with the news-anchor stars
in the troupe based on ratings.
The electoral farce with wooden voting figures.
Candidates – city folks dressed as clowns
in the dance of political freedoms
with tears in their eyes for the plights of the world,
with a passion for purity of the nation
and glory of the homeland.

Delusions – grandiosity and an atrocious vexation,
confused minds and accounts on fire
with debts sky-high, the soul in the red.
Hares in a sack, television slaves.

You had a slice of the moon in your transparent hands
and in your eyes you had birds
leaving for the south
I spread flowers of a hundred petals for you to walk on
to see the true light
to find the immortal water
so you can treat us all

Then cloudy and tearful sunsets came
Someone sold out cheaply
Another one bought expensively
and those who still resist
in the darkness they shine
like reflective signs
like benighted trucks

The eternal is bad trouble
In the ephemeral I spend too much time
And you flow in my my blood
like a slow poison

This evening too I will walk alone
hoping to find the water of forgetfulness – to forget you
and, in dark underground places, I’ll find a sign
with a glass until the panic of dawn

Cigarette without end – the weight of my loneliness -
it’s like a woman coming in tired off the streets
she lets loose her laugh and sits down beside me
she stands the next round and hits me on the shoulder

In a glass with a burning fuse
I am seeing your eyes and crying silently
and my mind, which is muddled again,
is whirls round the noose of your songs

Cigarette without end – the weight of my loneliness –
it’s like a woman coming in tired off the streets
she lets loose her laugh and sits down beside me
she stands the next round and hits me on the shoulder

Τσιγάρο ατέλειωτο βαρύ η μοναξιά μου
μοιάζει γυναίκα κουρασμένη απ’ το δρόμο
ρίχνει το γέλιο της και κάθεται κοντά μου
κερνάει τα επόμενα και με χτυπάει στον ώμο

The wise ones have told us everything
everything and then some
life tosses for heads or tails
but me, I lose the coin

I watch my friends, my old friends
saying it does not matter
a soul that has committed no sin
never ever gets the blessing

It is dark, my dear, my eyes,
it’s always dark in this universe
one crack we leave
for the light to get through

For colours to enter, voices,
dreams and journeys
for us to steal from the gods
some very precious jewels.

Life is just one swig
one day of the springtime
one breath, one sigh
on the cool breeze.

Good mistress of the ship,
give me a hug, embrace me
even if your kisses
are deadly poison on the lips.

It is dark, my dear, my eyes…

Είναι σκοτάδι μάτια μου…

I stand on the sky
Walk on the ocean
On the wave I walk
as I look at you.

You are a fairy of the dawn
The most pretty on the earth
With a smile you can
speak miracles

I flare-up in a snow storm
set fires on the cold
Spring has heart
as it looks at you

You are a fairy of the dawn
The prettiest on earth
With a smile you can
speak miracles

In the va – as I am saying – in the valley of Tempoi
- truck drivers’ terror -
There is an old – as I am saying – there is an old plane tree
solitary and violent

Who drinks from – as I am saying – who drinks from the troubled water
from the river’s holy water
He drinks and spreads – as I am saying – he drinks and spreads his roots
deeps down where words don’t reach

And whenever – as I am saying – and whenever the bad mood takes him
he bends and drops down onto the rails
He grabs the – as I am saying – he grabs the train by the ear
«Do not go past Yevgeli»

I was told – as I am saying – I was told by the Pineios
by talkative Pineios, what his secret is
that he once was – as I am saying – that he once was a human being
and had children who had emigrated.

[Translator's notes: In the short English notes in the cd-booklet, the tree is called a maple tree, but "platanos" really is the plane tree, and Northern Greece is definitely its home country; in the deep mountain valleys with running water, they grow to astounding size and age, and preternatural beauty. The "valley of Tempoi" is the passage, like a knife-cut through the mountains, where the Pineios river snakes its way from Thessalia to the sea, with Kissavos on one side and Olympos on the other towering two and half kilometres into the sky; the road ("truck drivers' terror") and the railway between Thessaloniki and Athens both have to squeeze through this defile. Yevgeli is the first station across the border on the Thessaloniki-Belgrado railway. The repetition of «όπως τα λέω» ("as I am saying") is a trick from folk song, where the words are used for rhythm not meaning.]

In the first year I used to be
a holy child in bed
but in the second I was fooled
into enticing arms

In the third I found myself
at dawn in beds not my own
and in the fourth from my friends
I was taking leave

They filled up the baptismal font
with alcoholic water
and what they gave me for my name
was “Rag to throw away”

For my first lie I had to dig
stone-quarrying my brain
the second I poured like a drink
refreshing and so cool

The third one it felt like in Spring
the first breeze softly blowing
By the fourth when I looked at me
I was myself no more

Of the first loving in my life
I said this is forever
the second one came at the cost
of many kisses less

The third one’s coming brought me joy
its leaving even better
when the fourth comes I’ll have to mind
and not leave on the light

(Translator’s note: this translation is a little “stretched” here and there, because I forced it to fit the melody. If you can sing (which I can’t), you can sing the English words to Malamas’ song.)

Η τρίτη ήρθε με χαρά
διπλή χαρά που φεύγει
στην τέταρτη να θυμηθώ
να σβήσω τη φωτιά.

They were scattered, the hours, in the swing of time
like the cigarettes we smoked, one after another, in the station,
sparks from the stars on frozen hands,
the hidden regret that eats away at you and brings again
returning.

Like paper boats, the joys
sink lucklessly on rainy days,
the medicine which burns the wounds
is written on improvised prescriptions

And you drink,
the moisture which drips from the roofs,
the bitterness I have in my mouth you drink.

You took my body and my desperation
beneath the extinguished lighthouse and in a room that was lent
and time became a fugitive, a murderer
like the flames of the lighter, which burned the scenery

Like paper boats, the joys
sink lucklessly on rainy days,
the medicine which burns the wounds
is written on improvised prescriptions

And you drink,
the moisture which drips from the roofs,
the bitterness I have in my mouth you drink.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Before you dressed in earth and water
I was with you, together in a different heaven
and if you have forgotten the way there, here I am
to remind of old times, to make you feel no pain

Woman you are life itself
made of starlight
of the Sun’s kiss
the wind’s breathing – my breath
a song celebrating

Together with you I came down here
it seems like a dream, an old forgotten dream,
you hid light in a mysterious body
I held memories that brought me near you

Κατέβηκα μαζί σου μέχρι εδώ
όνειρο φαίνεται παλιό και ξεχασμένο
έκρυψες φως μέσα σε σώμα μυστικό
κράτησα μνήμες που με φέρανε κοντά σου

** Όμορφη πόλη, κάτω απ’ το μαξιλάρι, τράτα, καλημέρα, στις χαραυγές ξεχνιέμαι, Δεκέμβρης του 1903, τον χρόνο να λαβώσω, στα είπα όλα, τρία ρουμπαγιάτ, ανήσυχες μέρες, εγώ με τις ιδέες μου, πιες. **”