Argyro Kaparou / Αργυρώ Καπαρού

Secrets, secrets
Secrets, unspoken things
for only that to remain
To last over time
to remain secrets
Secrets, secrets
Our first two minutes
to cut our ropes
and inside our cells
to grow wings
I become your air
Sun in your day
But you
look at me as if I am a barren island
I left the seas
I threw away my compasses
Voyages into the depths
that is what I want, do you hear?
Secrets, secrets
humble and on loan
may they become mirrors
to show who is to blame
and for the truth to come out
Secrets, secrets
as much as I tell you in whispers
They are cries, my heart
that I have in bed
at night, in an embrace

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Τα μυστικά , τα μυστικά,
Τα μυστικά τ’ ανείπωτα
Αυτά να μείνουν μόνο
Ν’ αντέξουνε στον χρόνο
Να μείνουν μυστικά
Τα μυστικά, τα μυστικά,
Τα πρώτα μας τα δυο λεπτά
Να κόψουν τα σχοινιά μας
Και μες απ’ τα κελιά μας
Να βγάλουμε φτερά
Γίνομαι αέρας σου
Ήλιος μες στη μέρα σου
Μα εσύ
Κοιτάς σαν να ’μαι άγονο νησί
Τις θάλασσες τις άφησα
Πυξίδες τις παράτησα
Ταξίδια σε βυθούς
Αυτό θέλω, τ’ ακούς;
Τα μυστικά , τα μυστικά
Τα ταπεινά και δανεικά
Να γίνουνε καθρέφτες
Να δείξουνε τους φταίχτες
Να βγουν τ’ αληθινά
Τα μυστικά, τα μυστικά,
Όσα σου λέω ψιθυριστά
Κραυγές είναι καρδιά μου
Που έχω στο κρεβάτι
Το βράδυ αγκαλιά

You become distant and I in order to reach you
the roads which take you not one moment would I hesitate
to pull them like a rug and to bring you back
and as much as you have done, in a kiss to forgive you

I am vanquished by my need to live for you alone
my love did not falter it disregarded the pain
love like the rock; far away from you I don’t exist

You become distant and I open my arms
and my shadow spreads itself to touch you a little bit
But not even that moves you, you turn your back on me
but I dispose of patience that you do not know of

I am vanquished by my need to live for you alone
my love did not falter it disregarded the pain
love like the rock; far away from you I don’t exist

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Με νίκησε η ανάγκη μου να ζω για σένα μόνο
δε λύγισε η αγάπη μου αψήφισε τον πόνο
αγάπη σαν το βράχο μακριά σου δεν υπάρχω

Ach, everything had to happen the way it happened!
The hopes and the roses to wilt.
Like little boats, for the years to get away from me,
to leave and be extinguished.

Thus, as we separated in the evenings,
forever, for so many friends to be lost.
The place where I was growing up as a little child
for me to leave some evening.

Ach, everything had to happen the way it happened
The hopes and the roses to wilt.
Like little boats, for the years to get away from me,
to leave and be extinguished.

Everything had to happen. Only the night
should not have been as sweet now as it seems to be
for them to play there, the stars like eyes
and it is as if they are laughing at me.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

I had an uncle who was a tough guy
The legendary Panais
Proud and noble
A long dagger at his waist
Black mustache curled at the ends
[At the] Cafe Aman* a ladies’ man

Hunted in Vourla
a handsome man and a smuggler
and the terror of Turkey
riding a slender horse
his eye dark and heavy
he stepped and the road trembled

He had killed a Turkish cop
when he was passing smuggled goods
in front of the forest guard station
To save the tobacco
He climbed up into the mountains
And distributed it in the City**

Tipsy, in high spirits one evening
And as he was a man with heart
He was hit with a bout of madness
And with bam and boum of pistol shots
He roused the neighborhoods
And brought down two bordellos

If he happened to see a poor person
His eyes welled up with tears as if he was a small child
And whenever he had extra money
Every Christmas and Easter
He would distribute goods, with his arms full
in the poor neighborhoods

My mother Alisavo
and my grandma Tsevo
would often have troubles
because they gossiped about us
saying that in the corners of our house
we were hiding smuggled goods

And one dull grey evening
they brought him to us, carrying him
into the house
with a bloodied throat
his back broken
wounded very heavily by a knife

And before dawn broke
And before the sun had fully come out
They dressed him in a casket
Tsesmes and Aivali*** cried for him
For my Uncle Panais
Turkey breathed more easily

A floozy took him down
One of his old loves
Ach desolate love
Because I imagine my uncle
Had secretly for some time been involved
with Arapi’s Angela

And the next morning
Turkey came out with an order
for the bordello to close
To avoid another Greek’s being killed
Because of romantic troubles
And the Greek population being extinguished.

But Panais was erased
From the book of life
May his soul be forgiven
He for whom Turkey trembled
Was brought down by a flame
And his life was lost for nothing

(I grew up, myself, you know
A girl among the other girls
And the flower of Aivali
I don’t forget my uncle
And I sat down this evening
And made a song about him for you)

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Cafe Aman: a cafe where refreshments and pleasures of many kinds were offered
** the City: Constantinople
*** Tsesmes and Aivali: cities in Asia Minor, just south of Smyrna)

(Μεγάλωσα κι εγώ που λες
Κοπέλα μες τις κοπελιές
Και τ’ Αϊβαλιού λουλούδι
Τον μπάρμπα μου δεν τον ξεχνώ
Κι έκατσα αυτό το δειλινό
Και σας τον έκανα τραγούδι)