Nikos Antypas / Νίκος Αντύπας

You leave or you stay
but you are always still inside me
You steal stars from me
and after you refuse me

Don’t go, don’t stay
I want you to not exist
to be able to stand an hour away from you
only for you to not exist
so I might melt into time
as if you had never existed

You give or you take
but I always owe you
One drop of love
I pay off with seas

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Sometimes when sleep doesn’t take me
I imagine that I run like the wind
with a velvet onrush
with my stellar body
and…

Small sword like a black ace
my heart is in the deck
you are my Jack, you gave me heartache
decorate me, kiss me, kisse me, speak about me.

Ach, Alice in Wonderland
such nights what are you seeking
only wolves of money
bark and eros trembles.

These leaves before they became a forest
were pages which I read to you
I, a deer, become a hunter
decorate me, kiss me, kiss me, speak about me.

Ach, century of miracles
what is love, you tell me
from the copies of the bodies
for only ecstasy to snatch you

I take my quiver
how many meters away from me is madness
become my love my stone also
a long face for the lengths I go to, laugh

I will be victorious at your end
Your William Tell laugh
a fairytale for the masses like us

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Θα νικήσω εγώ στο τέλος σου
Γουλιέλμος Τέλλος σου γέλα
παραμύθι για πλήθη σαν κι εμάς.

Like a volcano which is waking up
From a deep dream
And what creates the mountains
It cries to come into life
Like a volcano which is waking up
Extinct for seven generations
My lava, my lava
My warm blood

Very few relatives
Distant cousins
Tell me if anyone has left
For us, the birds
Very few relatives
In the depths of the mind
My lava, my lava
Body of the sky

I received light as communion
And there the heart usually leads you
I didn’t keep them in mind
The pale things of the word
I understood
I received light as communion
And I bear the fire
In my chest
I didn’t keep them in mind
The pale things of the word
I understood

Like a volcano which is waking up
From a deep dream
And what creates the mountains
It cries to come into life
Like a volcano which is waking up
Extinct for seven generations
My lava, my lava
Tear from Christ
I received them with lava
The things that the crowd says secretly
And even if they seem to be raving mad
The “ah” of the living people
I understood

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Σαν ηφαίστειο που ξυπνά
απ’ όνειρο βαθύ
κι ό,τι φτιάχνει τα βουνά
κλαίει να γεννηθεί
Σαν ηφαίστειο που ξυπνά
εφτά γενιές σβηστό
Λάβα μου, λάβα μου
δάκρυ από Χριστό
Εγώ με λάβα τα `λαβα
αυτά που λέει κρυφά το πλήθος
κι ας μοιάζαν θεοπάλαβα
τα αχ των ζωντανών
κατάλαβα

At night I set off from Thebes
Castles and gates i praised
It was the break of dawn
and i began

On the chariot of fruitful time
Beyond fate and on my own
The plain was throwing my dust away
At the borders of the nameless

Tormenting destiny of man
Thebes Albania Omonia
So ancient
And infinite

Which land pushes you away
And which one needs you
Which land cares about you
Which icon
Does tremble on the chest of the world
Like the rebirth of a living God
That’s taking too long

Ποια πατρίδα σε διώχνει
Και ποια σε χρειάζεται
Ποια σε νοιάζεται γη
Ποια εικόνα
Στα στήθια του κόσμου τραντάζεται
Σαν ανάσταση ζώντος Θεού
Που αργεί