Stamatis Kraounakis / Σταμάτης Κραουνάκης

I say* I’ll live I’ll leave this moment behind
I sing a song for a flower for an opportunity
I say I will get through it and I will stay outside and if the rain comes
I say I’ll send to my friend fear a red X

I have two smiles, blossom of good
one is for you, the other belongs to God
I have two smiles, I ask you please
everything seems rosy when I kiss you

I say I’ll take some clay and make a little ball
for a little toy, that the grey thought might play a little
I say I’ll live with something to dissolve this silence
maybe the pill they call love can say it

I have two smiles, blossom of good
one is for you, the other belongs to God
I have two smiles, I ask you please
everything seems rosy when I kiss you

(translation: Eva Johanos
*λέω ~ “I say,” also used in phrases to show intention, thought as in “I think I will . . . “)

Εχω δυο χαμόγελα άνθη του καλού
το ένα είναι για σένα το άλλο του Θεού
έχω δυο χαμόγελα σε παρακαλώ
όλα μοιάζουν ρόδινα όταν σε φιλώ

I got a red pair of glasses
And I see everything like a movie all around
and I know neither how to live
nor how to love
I supervise my life

I got a red pen
and I wander coast to coast, writing
ditties of fire
of fire and blaze
I copy my life

How I love this sun
How I love this sun
How I love the morning
And the friend is a pain
And the friend is a pain
shouting “promenade”

How I love the moon
how I love the moon
when it comes out to see me
holding the lantern
holding the lantern
over the wound of love

I got a red heart
and I’m dressed in wide shirts
and I’m asking to be told
by all those knowing how to love
to which love I’m owing

I got red wings
and I’m having a good time, I’m laughing
I get a body of snow
and a swallow’s tail
I’m speaking to the ear of God

How I love this sun
How I love this sun
How I love the morning
And the friend is a pain
And the firend is a pain
shouting “promenade”

How I love the moon
how I love the moon
when it comes out to see me
holding the lantern
holding the lantern
over the wound of love

I got a pair of red glasses
And I see everything like a movie
I know neither how to live
nor how to love

Πήρα κόκκινα γυαλιά
κι όλα γύρω σινεμά τα βλέπω
κι ούτε ξέρω πώς να ζω
ούτε και πώς ν’ αγαπώ

When I have you
I can dream again
I sail into the sea
and I take the world in my hands
to fix it

When I have you
I am able to not sink slowly
the nights when the heart gets broken
and I take the knife
to cut the darkness

Take one step
and I will take the next one
my blood and figure
word and soul in the context

When I have you
I sleep like a child, I have a person
I am not afraid of anyone
You and I
in the inhuman world

You and me
When I have you
I can paint the rust in silver
I can sleep securely
catch the dragons with my hands
to kill them

When I have you
I can stand, I can go by the cliff
I know, I have a hand to hold on to
a person near me
to unite my years

Όταν έχω εσένα
αντέχω, πάω δίπλα στον γκρεμό
το ξέρω, έχω ένα χέρι να πιαστώ
κοντά μου έναν άνθρωπο
τα χρόνια μου να ενώσω

I won’t go through another drama, this one’s enough
Alone I will cross the ocean again
And if i happen to bend, my God forgive me
and if i drink and if i get wasted, comfort me

I won’t get another wound, another such reward
Alone I’ll witness the miracle, alone (i’ll witness) the rabbi.
And if I roll down to love, my God forgive me
and if drink and if i get wasted, comfort me

I won’t shed another tear, this night’s tears are enough
I’ll break into the void, i’m going to reach the sky
and if you see me coming up, my God forgive me
And if i fall down to die, comfort me

A black flag in my hands I hold.
Your names with blood are written
To find you again I try, having become sick,
But in the ashes of a love I walk.
Black flag in one of the hidden places of the world
a trunk which contains only deception.

Black flag that we have been holding since a long time ago
Poisoned, damned, in love
We have all of us a noose around our necks
I shall not find you, you will be a scattered mine.

Black flag that we have been holding since a long time ago
Poisoned, damned, in love
The memory burns passions, it burns kisses too
In what homeland, I wonder, live the happy ones

I go around to the bars and in the streets to find you.
Wherever you are from everywhere there are shields.
They promised you it seems a bed and care,
a well-made life and the water of immortal youth.

You don’t remember me. How should you know. And if you saw me
a black flag you would see me wearing.

Black flag that we have been holding since a long time ago
Poisoned, damned, in love
We have all of us a noose around our necks
I shall not find you, you will be a scattered mine.

Black flag that we have been holding since a long time ago
Poisoned, damned, in love
The memory burns passions, it burns kisses too
In what homeland, I wonder, live the happy ones

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Μαύρη σημαία την κρατάμε από παλιά
Φαρμακωμένοι, κολασμένοι, ερωτευμένοι
Η μνήμη καίει πάθη, καίει και φιλιά
Σε ποια πατρίδα, τάχα, ζουν οι ευτυχισμένοι

You say also that we eat ice cream in the winter.
You say also that we fall into walls at a hundred.
And so I bend that evening backward
the rod of the mind.

You say also that the station of love goes to find
how many treasures are hidden in the mud.
How the crosses were cut in the fingers
for the works of human beings.

Uncorrected the eyes and the hearts
with buttons and zippers destroyed
two things I said fell heavily on you
and you decided to live without me.

You say also that we spread a rug in August
you say the elevator came out into a cell
where one saw the light as the dawn [east]
and the other as the setting sun [west]

You say also that inside us the opposites pull
to vote for the same floor screen
like the eternal Jesus or Barabas
of human nature.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Λες και μέσα μας τ’ αντίθετα τραβάν
να ψηφίσουνε στο ίδιο παραβάν
σαν αιώνιο Ιησούν ή Βαραβάν
του ανθρώπου η φύση.