Εlias Liougos / Ηλίας Λιούγκος

Lord, it is time
for you to help a soul
to find its way now
my shallow soul.

I cannot live in opposition
to you, and where I stand
with unknown rhythms and names
I seek your help.

I am an acrobat
and I am looking for my own God.

Lord, give me courage
don’t let the rope break
I want to be a beacon
which illuminates the silence.

I want to fly free
beyond the void
small and secondarily,
I don’t know how to love.

I am an acrobat
and I am looking for my own God.
I am an acrobat
and I am looking for a new God.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Είμαι ακροβάτης
και γυρεύω δικό μου Θεό.
Είμαι ακροβάτης
και γυρεύω καινούργιο Θεό.

An all-saintly one
a love of mine, I have enclosed
in a distant country-chapel
every night
the heart’s doorway, I open
I look (inside) a while and I revere

When is it coming, when is it coming ?
the summer
when is the star arising ?
so that I may, on your hair, dress you
(with) golden wreath
as though a pyrofanion, on a seashore

An all-saintly one
a love of mine, I have enclosed
in a distant country-chapel
every night
the heart’s doorway, I open
I cry a little and I revere

Μια Παναγιά
μιαν αγάπη μου έχω κλείσει
σ’ ερημοκλήσι αλαργινό
κάθε βραδιά
της καρδιάς την πόρτα ανοίγω
δακρύζω λίγο και προσκυνώ.

Gone is the time gone is the time
that breezy and fresh was humankind
and every dawn spring water gushing would overflow
to water all of the earth

Dark nights then came with much of rain
winter frost overcame the souls
and in the deep darkness there stayed
to get warm a child

The tear is flowing now to the ground
and from up in the distant North
a boat is still asking
where it will find dry land

Gone is the time…

Πάει ο καιρός…

My love, I searched for you
in the dawn and in the moon
and in the heights of the clouds
I searched blindly for you,
but the weather changed, the rain came,
and your cool grace
my love I searched for you
because you were the sky.*

And if the God who formed you
with one great wish
that you have a star in your hair
and a golden heart,
on the threshing floor it rose straight up
the golden wheat
and my love loved me
because I was the sky.

My love how I lost you
how my heart stood still
and the birds snatched you
in the heavy rain;
The north wind came, the south wind came
for the wave to take you
my love, how you left
because you were the sky.

(translation: Eva Johanos
*ουρανός ~ “Uranus” means both sky and heaven)