Synitheis Ypoptoi (Usual Suspects) / Συνήθεις Ύποπτοι

So many years I am searching for you in my maps
even if you never bent down to my forehead
with your two lips to leave a breath in my life.

And if my prayer smells of alcohol
smoke and fever, into the glass wave
I yell your name so that my voice is reflected

And on the shore where you comb your hair it is heard
like a salty song which brings you the water in love

And I sell my soul to the devil,
I do, so to find myself, tonight, enfolded
in the depths of your body

Somewhere the night in mid sea is hanging
on the gallows of the sky, and the demon riding the darkness
snatches my meteoric wish

And like a burning star
he flings my words toward your island,
wounding the rocks and sand;
on your comb my soul is speared

And drop by drop I flow like
saltwater on your shoulders and precious neck

And so what if I know that, true to his word
on the rope ladder there, he awaits me
to cut my rope

For years I have been on the opposite side
the lights of some earth go on and off
the lights of some forgotten island
which they say are the peaks of paradise

But I know it is the magic of the sea
for one thing, no such dry land exists
and nobody has ever gone there
for that reason I hold on tightly to your body

And before the damned
I pass like a shadow which is taking
a stroll through Hades
with your fragrance

And it is, I say, paradise for us, my little love
let us share this hell together

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Good night. . .

With the broken eyes of a saddened chid
You stand there on the doorsill of the mind
And the memories that I hide deep inside
I don’t know if they are something I have
Or something I have now lost…

Good night
and please love me…

What you remember, they say, lives inside you
Lives and pierces you like a bitter needle
Bitter like the laughter, drunken and crazy
Of some junkie archangel
on the rock of Lykabetus

Good night
and please love me…

What time has it gotten to, who has a light
Speak to me, speak to me, the silence is heavier
Heavier than the lights
Heavier than the smoke
And a ragged person sang his last blues

Good night
and please love me…

(translation Eva Johanos)

Καλή σου νύχτα
και να μ’ αγαπάς…

It is raining and I have been taken
into this embrace
into the ragged clouds, the leaves
the perfume of the rained-drenched earth

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body which thirsts!

It’s raining and in the open yards
the children are dancing
God is drubbing the prayers on the drum
in the hearts, on bare feet

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body that thirsts!

You came, dear rain, and changed
the way and the mind
and like a river swept away my step
and in spite of myself you are taking me away

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body that thirsts!

Ας ήτανε να πνιγώ σαν μια σταγόνα
μέσα στα χείλια σου εγώ
βροχή μου σκέπασε αυτή τη γωνιά
τούτο το σώμα που διψά

Red and blurry moon
like our dreams you stay awake at night
and from the prisons of this world
around the midnight you escape
you drop in our empty glasses
the blood and the light of the sky
and it’s because of your mysterious sheen
that i am capable of everything.

Red and blurry moon
i drink a sip from your silence
and like a hot shot to take me
away from the pain’s nest
away from the pieces of this town
that rolled in front of your knees
and on your silk dress my destiny has been hooked up.

Red and blurry moon
please, take me with you
in my cell I’m driving crazy
as an outcast of escape
oh, if i could even briefly
to share you from far away
this knot would had been loose
my little death’s loop.

Red and blurry moon
like out dreams you stay awake at night
and from the prisons of this world
around the midnight you escape
and so, bloody you travel
like a kite without thread
you are the mirror of the time
nothing and eternity together.

Like you I have something stuck in my throat
at unrelated moments I burst out in anger
Like you in the parks of Silence
I drag my shadow along

Like you I turn into honey in the light
Inside this plastic world of status quo
And at night
I turn back into pieces and glue them back together again

Unleashed days whistle on my balcony
unleashed days have wedged themselves into my city
They aim for the future, they happen to hit the present
and they have crowded me into an unending hiding place

Like you, in the morning at the market
I’m looking for a cheap pair of wings
They finally sell me some stolen ones
But I insist, anyway

I start gathering speed and take a reading on the weather
in order to entrust my body to the void
and I forget that that sky, as well
they have betrayed and sold

Unleashed days whistle on my balcony
unleashed days have wedged themselves into my city
They aim for the future, they happen to hit the present
and they have crowded me into an unending hiding place

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Μέρες αδέσποτες σφυρίζουν στο μπαλκόνι μου
μέρες αδέσποτες σφηνώθηκαν στην πόλη μου
σημαδεύουνε το μέλλον πετυχαίνουν το παρόν
και με στρίμωξαν σ’ ατέλειωτο κρυφτό