Haralambos Garganourakis / Χαράλαμπος Γαργανουράκης

The words and the years, the lost years
and the sorrows that were covered by smoke
the foreign lands found they had become like brothers
And the sudden joys that came for me
were black thunder in a forest
and the reflections I was able to have about you

And I speak to you in courtyards and on balconies
and in lost gardens of God
and I keep imagining that the nightingales are coming
with the lost words and the years
there where first you were everywhere
and now in the cold and in the snows

Fate and time had decreed
that in this world I would cast my fishing-line
and the night a thousand years returning
At the end of the celebration to sing
he who had not known a generation
and to knock on the door of sorrow
and to knock on the door of sorrow
and to knock on the door of sorrow

It was not a stopped clock
in a ruined and empty house
the roads which took me and I await
The words which I don’t know I bind
with the people who saw the wrong
and had it embroidered on their names

He who sows tears and pain
threshes the ocean at dawn
black birds show him the way
And he has the drawing near his shoulder,
a sign, secret and fated
that he has escaped from hell and the world

Fate and time…

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Η μοίρα κι ο καιρός…

Down deep in my root
deep down in my heart.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I raise the banner
the way I raise.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I descend from the mountains, rocks
as bright, beautiful as pure as air.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I raise the banner
the way I raise.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I climb out of the deep sea
so bright, beautiful as pure as air.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I fondle the grass,
on the roads I hear the birds,
the silence, I caress the flowers
the fields, the rain.

I see my face
in your river.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

I raise the banner
the way I raise.

That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses
That I may be Jesus Krishna Moses.

Maybe I will be deprived of my bread,
maybe I will sell off my mattress and my clothes.
Maybe I will work as a garbageman, a stonecutter and a porter,
maybe I will collapse on the ground, naked and hungry.

But I am not haggling, and until the last
beat of my heart I will resist.

Maybe you will snatch from my earth the last hand’s-breadth,
maybe you will throw into the prisons my youth.
Maybe you will steal the inheritance of my grandfather,
maybe you will sit nightmares on top of my village.

But I am not haggling, and until the last
beat of my heart I will resist.

Maybe from my nights you will extinguish every light,
maybe I will be deprived of the mother’s kiss.
Maybe you will deprive my children of new clothes for the holiday,
maybe on my days you will nail the cross.

But I am not haggling, and until the last
beat of my heart I will resist.

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Sahim Kasem, Palestinian poet)

My Crete, beautiful island, (x3)
key of Paradise (x2)
You wild beast, (x3)
come out so they can greet you. (x2)

On the right you hold a continent,
on the left another,
you play the thundering lyre for them,
so they will dance again. (x2)

When I see you I stand up, (x3)
I am lower in stature, (x2)
Your humming I taste, (x3)
and from your voices I melt. (x2)

On the right you hold a continent,
on the left another,
you play the thundering lyre for them,
so they will dance again. (x2)

A tumult is caught in the mountains,(x3)
the wild animals give out (x2)
and when there is lightning and thunder, (x3)
you bring out a rainbow. (x2)

On the right you hold a continent,
on the left another,
you play the thundering lyre for them,
so they will dance again. (x2)

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Κρατάς δεξιά μιαν ήπειρο,
αριστερά μιαν άλλη,
τους παιζεις τη βροντόλυρα,
για να χορέψουν πάλι.(x2)