Yiannis Angelakas / Γιάννης Αγγελάκας

From here on up in the noise of the celebration
with a joke I will leap up.
From here on up, hungry heart
with joy and tears I will have my fill of you.

From here on up I ask no more
what I seek, where I go and who I am.
From here on up I stop the prayers,
from here on up I am not afraid.

From here on up in the embrace of the rhythm,
opa! with a leap I come inside,
from here on up I sing for the fire,
and I distance myself from the world’s chimney.

From here on up I ask no more
what I seek, where I go and who I am.
From here on up I stop the prayers,
from here on up I am not afraid.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

I don’t know if he is found hidden
in your nails- God-
but you, to me, look more like
a hungry wolf
And when you speak in public to the sheep
for the nation’s benefit
devil, I see you dancing the dance of the beast.

Tell me how love happens
to live from the world “enemy”
And how I will find salvation
hunched over and mute
and if, again, this little song
you find heretical
devil, flee from before me,
you are hiding God.

Who is carving the darkness in my soul
and when I am joyful who is crying
who is wrestling that I may hate my body
and when I love it who is at fault
who brakes and knocks down my life
and when I make progress who cries
who asks me to lower my voice
and when I deny him that who is at fault,
who is at fault?

Tell me how love happens
to live from the world “enemy”
And how I will find salvation
hunched over and mute
and if, again, this little song
you find heretical
devil, flee from before me,
you are hiding God.

Who is carving the darkness in my soul
and when I am joyful who is crying
who is wrestling that I may hate my body
and when I love it who is at fault
who brakes and knocks down my life
and when I make progress who cries
who asks me to lower my voice
and when I deny him that who is at fault,
who is at fault?

(translation: Eva Johanos)

They tell me if I get out of the circle I’ll get lost
That I should only roam around within its limits.
And that the world is an untamed creature
And when it bites I would do good to be silent.
And when they fear I might get crazy
They tell me to go somewhere to cry secretly.
And I should remember that this scenery
I am small, too small to change.

But I, with a wild proud dance,
Will fly like an eagle over the sorrows.
I won’t cry, I won’t fear,
I won’t cry, I won’t fear.
I’ll go to build a nest in the sky,
I’ll only descend if I want to laugh.
I won’t cry, I won’t fear,
I won’t cry, I won’t fear.

They tell me if I go higher I’ll get dizzy
That it’s better to roll around here, in the mud, with them.
And that if I want to see more,
In a mirror I should look at myself alone.
And when they fear I might get crazy
They tell me to go somewhere to cry secretly.
And I should remember that this scenery
I am small, too small to change.

But I, with a wild proud dance,
Will fly like an eagle over the sorrows.
I won’t cry, I won’t fear,
I won’t cry, I won’t fear.
I’ll go to build a nest in the sky,
I’ll only descend if I want to laugh.
I won’t cry, I won’t fear,
I won’t cry, I won’t fear..

Θα πάω να χτίσω μια φωλιά στον ουρανό,
θα κατεβαίνω μόνο αν θέλω να γελάσω
Σιγά μην κλάψω, σιγά μη φοβηθώ,
σιγά μην κλάψω, σιγά μη φοβηθώ.

You partied to the heavens
with dice and cards
and suddenly in our darkness
you derailed at top speed

Now you are cold and hungry
with a “drop it” to us
for you is boiling
this empty pot

Never mind
that everything happened hurriedly
and if you didn’t have time to say
two or three words

You know that he’s the winner, finally
the one who smiles before the guillotine

You spread felt in the clouds and in an instant
you won a century betting an hour

Now you are angry and huffing and puffing and always asking
where this wild descent will stop

Never mind
that everything happened hurriedly
and if you didn’t have time to say
two or three words

You know that he’s the winner, finally
the one who smiles before the guillotine

Never mind that you didn’t get the roll of the dice
you gambled on the dream and you are ready for everything.
It says it, also, a song they taught us a long time ago
the loser takes all.

Don’t whine about not getting the roll of the dice
you gambled on the dream and you are ready for everything.
It says it, also, a song they taught us a long time ago
the loser takes all.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

I don’t know what the gods still owe me
as long as I am sleeping they deal the cards
outside your door that I may melt they may send me
or to your bed to weep from joy.

My tears are a transparent river
it rushes inside you and destroys whatever it finds
and drunkenly it yells to you
come let’s leave together.

Your loneliness is a dirty port
no one wants to remain standing in its waters
don’t listen to it when it speaks
burn what needs to burn.

I tell you don’t hurry you don’t know where you have arrived
you awaken one day with an excellent kiss
and as many things as you have lost forever
forever they have been saved.

Don’t stand alone down there in the well
my love has already thrown you the rope
and drunkenly it yells to you
come let’s leave together.

Your loneliness is a fake scar
Inside your heart it paints a wound
don’t listen to it when it speaks
burn what needs to burn.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Wild music of the stars
When the night comes you wake me up
In the deepest silence
You come and you torture me

Wild music of the stars
In your forgotten fire
The deepest sorrows throw themselves
As they are looking for a cure

With everything that’s gone, with everything that’s lost
With everything that I have saved in me
I start from the beginning everyday
I count them and I wait for the night to come

Wild music of the stars
When the night comes you wake me up
In the deepest silence
You come and you torture me

You intoxicate me you fool me you caress me you beat me you give me pain
To the non existent homeland of the dreams you lead me
You intoxicate me you fool me you caress me you beat me you give me pain
And when you leave in the morning you abandon me like a child

Wild music of the stars
You come with out asking
And with a sudden kiss
You swallow me up you suck me

Wild music of the stars
In your forgotten fire
The deepest sorrows throw themselves
As they are looking for a cure

You intoxicate me you fool me you caress me you beat me you give me pain
To the non existent homeland of the dreams you lead me
You intoxicate me you fool me you caress me you beat me you give me pain
And when you leave in the morning you abandon me like a child…

Who shows up when the world is being destroyed
this dirty spring is spinning me like a top
and my heart like a wreck is going downhill

Let it blow sky high, this existence
it scents the air with gunpowder and hashish
and my heart like a wreck which is rushing to kiss it

Who is crying inside me and telling me
wake up this is not a dream, the snow which is burning us
poverty is better behaved if it feels that it is to blame

Who is showing up, and where is the world going
this dirty spring is tearing me up and intoxicating me
and my heart like a wreck in the stars is blowing out

Where will it go, where will it go this wheel which is stuck
and keeps returning to the beginning
where will it go it will get unstuck
and the world like a wreck will roll towards a different destination

Where will it go, where will it go this night which continues
and doesn’t seem to want to end
where will it go, the dawn will come
and my heart like a wreck will meet all of you

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Where are you going, my little Yianni, sick, bent over and dirty
and you pass by without speaking and look at us like we are strangers

I got dirtied by beauty and I’m going to find a spring
to go under it to get clean and to put out my fire*

Where are you going my little Yianni, not sleeping, pale and bloodied
and dragging yourself through the valleys like a wounded wolf

I was wounded by beauty and I am looking for a pharmacy
I was always one but now I have become two

Where are you going, my little Yianni, unemployed like a sad street urchin
you are stumbling and talking to yourself; tell us what has happened

Just when everything seemed sure and I had no worries
in the middle of the afternoon I met the night
and since everything has been turned upside down and I have no other solution
I’m going to find my friends and get completely drunk

(translation: Eva Johanos
*fire- this expression means also intense erotic longing)

My words are a sweet prayer
they perch outside your closed window
and if you let them they’d open a crack
from your small cell to infinity

But you remain silent and mourn like the convict
Over the ash that covers paradise
Over the ash

Set fire to what burns you, what eats your soul
Outside the streets are breathing, thirsty, open

Love is a journey from party to party
Live with me on air, on fire, on rain
Empty days, cracked skies await us
Love is a journey from pain to pain

My words are a hapless wish
Turned-off lights in the unpleasant room
And if you let them they’d burn the silence
And dismantle your hidden sigh

But you remain silent and mourning like the convict
Over the ash that covers paradise
over the ash

Set fire to what burns you, what eats your soul
Outside the streets are breathing, thirsty, open

Love is a journey from party to party
Live with me on air, on fire, on rain
Empty days, cracked skies await us
Love is a journey from pain to pain

Set fire to what burns you, what eats your soul
There’s more, there’s still something that hasn’t been lost

Love is a journey from party to party
Live with me on air, on fire, on rain
Empty days, cracked skies await us
Love is a journey from pain to pain

Love is a journey from party to party
Love is a journey from pain to pain
Love is a journey from party to party
Love is a journey from pain to pain

Είναι η αγάπη ένα ταξίδι από γιορτή σε γιορτή
Είναι η αγάπη ένα ταξίδι από πληγή σε πληγή
Είναι η αγάπη ένα ταξίδι από γιορτή σε γιορτή
Είναι η αγάπη ένα ταξίδι από πληγή σε πληγή

I got on my knees and I asked the saddened clouds
to shine, to break open with rain,
and all night we became puppies and took our minds off our worries
and licked each other’s wounds

We got drunk and we drank of the kisses we were giving
and the fires went out one by one,
and in the morning we awoke from the dream we lived
in that sweet way, the way lovers wake up

I got up and quietly prayed to the trees
that we might stand the deeper joys,
and all night long we foamed, rivers which we turned back
high up to our beginning sources

We lit fires and put them out and began once again
and they became one, our two hearts,
and in the morning we awoke from the dream we lived
in that sweet way, the way lovers wake up

I got up and quietly prayed to the trees
that we might stand the deeper joys,
and all night long we foamed, rivers which we turned back
high up to our beginning sources

We lit fires and put them out and began once again
and they became one, our two hearts,
and in the morning we awoke from the dream we lived
in that sweet way, the way lovers wake up

(translation: Eva Johanos)

When dawn breaks, the first sigh
exits the lips the most tightly pressed together.
Like a butterfly in the chamber it flies
looking for an opening to leave.

If you are alone, if you are weak
the dawn will undo you
it has the myrrh, it has the silence
it has the shiftless sun.

New day, new river
on its banks it will offer
all who have become lost, all who’ve been forgotten
and all those about whom nobody knows.

Behind the hills, behind the eyelashes
there is a place for you also.
Without a Bastille, without a curse,
without the tightened lips.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Πίσω απ’ τους λόφους, πίσω απ’ τα βλέφαρα
υπάρχει τόπος και για σένα.
Χωρίς Βαστίλη, χωρίς ανάθεμα,
χωρίς τα χείλη τα σφιγμένα.