Christos Leontis / Χρήστος Λεοντής

In this corner of the earth
we remained forgotten
my mama, my son, my soil
earth betrayed a thousand times

My mother and my sorrow and joy
my soil and my heart-ache
I sing of you, my eyes
son and beloved of mine

Grab picks and mattocks
sickles and two-pronged pitchforks
Put on a red flower
towards the heart the leaf

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Πιάστε αξίνες και τσαπιά
δρεπάνια και δικέλλια
βάλτε λουλούδι κόκκινο
εις της καρδιάς το φύλλο

If I knew reading, writing
if it was, if it was mine the sword
they would not eat my bread now
I would refuse stealing for my fate

I feel pain for the future generations
The factory workers, the hard fighters
Washerwomen, porters and students
Builders, those who live in the countryside.

I have become tired, not a drop has remained for me
of the strength to lift my head
I failed once again
now others are ruling me

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Κουράστηκα δε μου ‘μεινε σταλιά
δύναμη να σηκώσω το κεφάλι
απότυχα για άλλη μια φορά
τώρα με κυβερνούνε άλλοι

The sun went down, my Hellene [Greek man],
it went down and the moon disappeared,
and the clear morning star
which travels close to the Pleiades,
the four of them were conversing
and having a hidden discussion.
The sun returned and told them,
turned around and commented:

“Yesterday when I was going down
behind a ridge,
I heard the cries of women
and the death songs of men,
for those heroic bodies
laid down in the field
and in much blood
is everything drenched.
For their fatherland they went
to Hades, the poor guys.”

(translation: Eva Johanos)

In the video above, we hear the song sung by the beloved legendary singer and patriot Nikos Xylouris. . . and the words of the song, the poetry was written by a hero of the revolution of 1821.

In black the mothers dressed themselves
they ring the church bells to arouse the people
on the mountaintops lions are lunging
the brave young men, the brave young men**

All Holy, Holy Virgin
have pity on the children
who have remained desolate
now that the branches are bursting with flowers
and the freezing weather has reached the end

It was a flash of lightning and a Good Morning
their glance made a hole like a bullet
and as they moved toward death
how they sang, how they sang

All Holy, Holy Virgin
have pity on the children
who have remained desolate
now that the branches are bursting with flowers
and the freezing weather has reached the end

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Panaghia- “All Holy”- common appellation for the Virgin Mary
**pallikaria- brave young men)

So, my brother
we have learned, at last, how to discuss
quietly, quietly and simply.
We understand each other now
nothing more is necessary.

And tomorrow, say I, we will become
even simpler.
We will find those words
that have the the same weight
in all hearts,
on all lips,
so that we can call, anymore,
the figs-figs
and the tub-tub.*

And so that the others may laugh
and say:
“Such poems
I can make for you a hundred an hour.”
That’s what we want after all.
Because we do not sing
in order to separate ourselves, my brother,
from the world.
We sing
in order to unite the world.

(*greek expression meaning to say things as they truly are.)

Κι έτσι που να χαμογελάνε οι άλλοι
και να λένε:
“Τέτοια ποιήματα
σου φτιάχνω εκατό την ώρα”.
Αυτό θέλουμε κι εμείς.
Γιατί εμείς δεν τραγουδάμε
για να ξεχωρίσουμε, αδελφέ μου,
απ’ τον κόσμο.
Εμείς τραγουδάμε
για να σμίξουμε τον κόσμο.

These days the wind hunts us, hunts us [2x]
Around every glance, the barbed wire
Around our heart, the barbed wire
Around hope, the barbed wire
Very cold, very cold, very cold this year

Closer, closer
wet kilometers gather around them [2x]

Inside the pockets of their old overcoat
they have small fireplaces for the children to get warm
They sit on the bench and give off steam
from the rain and the distance
Their breath is the smoke of a train
that goes far, very far
that goes far, very far
They converse
and then the bedroom door of which the paint has been worn off
becomes like a mother who crosses her arms
and listens

Closer, closer
wet kilometers gather around them [2x]

These days the wind hunts us, hunts us [2x]
Around every glance, the barbed wire
Around our heart, the barbed wire
Around hope, the barbed wire
Very cold, very cold, very cold this year

Closer, closer
wet kilometers gather around them [2x]

(translation: Eva Johanos)

We are smiling deeply within. This smile, we now hide.
An outlaw smile, just as the sun became an outlaw,
an outlaw as well, the truth. We hide the smile,
just as we hide in our pocket, the photograph of our beloved,
just as we hide the idea of freedom, between the two leaves of our heart.
All of us here have one sky and the same smile.

Tomorrow they may kill us. This smile,
and this sky, they cannot take from us.

Αύριο μπορεί να μας σκοτώσουν. Αυτό το χαμόγελο,
κι αυτόν τον ουρανό, δεν μπορούν να μας τα πάρουν.

My love is bathing
in the Guadalquivir [river],
and the flowers take up the scent
of her sweet body

Run, fly swallow
bring her a needle from Venice
to embroider on the scarf
to send me her joy

Silken, my love
embroiders scarves for me
and she kisses the thread
and dyes it crimson

Run, fly swallow
bring her a needle from Venice
to embroider on the scarf
to send me her joy