Dimitris Horn / Δημήτρης Χορν

Στα χείλια σου το γέλιο
στα μάτια η απονιά
Εγώ θα τηνε κάψω αυτή τη γειτονιά

Tell me a word, this one word
In a while the sun will rise
The pale dawn will come.

It’s almost six
Let us say this word
which is tanled up in the lips
and doesn’t dare to emerge.

The sky, the great sky
is still dark
and the night goes on
But high up there
see a star, timidly
shining alone and smiling at us

Silver night
and every one of your cares
in a silk net
from golden hair

The sweet dawn comes but you don’t mind
that my empty embrace is filled with misery.

Γλυκοχαράζει αλλά δε σε πειράζει
που γέμισε μαράζι η άδεια μου αγκαλιά.
…

God has given me a childish heart
I walk in the streets with the beautiful houses
I love the sun and in the park over there
I have become friends with two or three sparrows.

And I don’t think about anything else and I have each time
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy,
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy.

I know some girls who pass shyly by
and if they happen to see me they wave their hands
and there is one girl, a little one, may she be well
who might give me a drop of summer.

And I don’t think about anything else and I have each time
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy,
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy.

I love the sparrows, of which there are so many
I love people and I keep company with them
I love the girls who pass shyly by
but one girl I love more.

And I don’t think about anything else and I have each time
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy,
a little tiny joy, a nickel’s worth of joy.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Your red, your green,
your sea-coloured beads
brought yesterday to blows
ten fine men.

They brought chaos and uprest
to the alleys of Kokkinia*
those green, those red,
those sea-coloured beads of yours.

Lai-la-la…(to the rhythm)

Oh, take off the decorations
that you put on you when you pass by
and stop your games
and torture us no more.

Your red, your green
your blue bracelets
drove Petralona* crazy
and burnt Sepolia* down.

But if the right man is found,
my poor heart will weep for
your green, your red,
your blue bracelets.

Lai-la-la…(to the rhythm)

Oh, take off the decorations
that you put on you when you pass by
and stop your games
and taunt us no more.

Τα κόκκινα τα πράσινα
τα μπλε σου τα βραχιόλια
τρελάναν τα Πετράλωνα
και κάψαν τα Σεπόλια.
Μα αν βρεθεί ο μάστορας
θα κλαίει η καρδιά μου η δόλια
τα κόκκινα τα πράσινα
τα μπλε σου τα βραχιόλια

“This neighborhood is for all of us a cage;
no one truly lives that which he wants to live,
because a dream is only for a moment and
all the other moments despair. . .
on this street we are born, we live and we die,
together with us our dreams, together with us our children as well.

For that reason a party on this street
is even sadder than death itself,
it is a record player which suddenly goes out of tune,
two sweaty hands on the white dress of a girl,
a dog which doubts,
an empty glass at the edge of my courtyard,
a red ribbon in her hair,
a hidden sigh,
the rapacious glance of a beast which does not dare to touch,
a cage in your doorway with a sleeping bird inside. . .

For that reason a party in the Street of Dreams
is sadder than the moment of a dream,
it is a joke on life,
a card game in the hands of the angels.

Look at this cage
it is a little bigger than my heart
and yet it can’t contain my love;
look also at this girl
I will give her the cage and she will sing me a song
about the bird that got lost, about the bird that is no longer alive.”

(translation: Eva Johanos)