Dimitris Lagios / Δημήτρης Λάγιος

“I do not fear death. However, there is not enough time for me. Whatever you might accomplish in art, there is never enough time,” said Dimitris Lagios, who fought bravely until the end. “I will not leave, it is very early yet,” was his promise, which unfortunately he was not able to keep. However, he did not leave from the hearts of all of those who “traveled” with his music, exceptional in its sensitivity and quality. Humble and quiet, [Lagios] chose consciously to stay far from the spotlight, refusing to become commercial, to refuse his own existence.His constant struggle was to create as much as possible, to leave as much as possible. . .

This concert dedicated to the musician and composer from Corfu Dimitris Lagios was the third event of the Cycle of the . . . Greek Song, entitled The Unknown Hellenicism,” which took place on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 on the central stage of the Hall of Arts and Letters.

Participating singers:
Pantelis Thalassinos
Doros Demosthenous
Areti Ketime
Dimitris Yfantis
Iakinthi Lagiou
Fotini Velesiotou
Zacharias Karounis
Irini Karayianni
Haris Andrianos

Patras Orchestra of Night Strings
directed by Thanassis Tsipinakis
Viale Arti Orchestra
directed by Dimitris Bouzanis
Orchestra of the Greek Song
directed by Yiannis Papazachariakis
En Fonais [In voice] Chorus
directed by Alexandros Stoupakis

«Ορχήστρα Νυκτών Εγχόρδων» Πάτρας
Διευθύνει ο Θανάσης Τσιπινάκης
Ορχήστρα «Viale Arti»
Διευθύνει ο Δημήτρης Μπουζάνης
Ορχήστρα Ελληνικού Τραγουδιού
Διευθύνει ο Γιάννης Παπαζαχαριάκης
Φωνητικό σύνολο «Εν Φωναίς»
Διευθύνει ο Αλέξανδρος Στουπάκης

To dream and from the window to travel
to go inside of you to be destroyed and to die

My salvation is death and your body
to go inside of you to be destroyed and to die

To dream and from the window to travel
on a wide beach in the abandonment of the white winter

To dream and from the window to travel

Nakedness gleams with the white gleaming
it charms death with white
absence and everything is nothing, expense, nakedness…

To dream and from the window to travel
with eros around and death beneath the eyes

Expenditure continuously there are no masks
it is the dream which enchants

I open… it is dawning…

(second voice: first two verses)

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Ανοίγω…..ξημερώνει…..

To dream and from the window to dream
to go inside of you to be destroyed and to die
My salvation is death and your body
to go inside of you to be destroyed and to die

(translation: Eva Johanos)
(a rare performance, by Lagios himself. From his last record, “Erotic Rehearsal.”)

(Μία σπάνια εκτέλεση, με την ερμηνεία του ίδιου του Λάγιου. Από τον τελευταίο του δίσκο “Ερωτική Πρόβα”.)

The mirror in the water
On the corals in the deeps
Shines and lights three fires
Throwing upside-down arrows …

Mirror, mirror
Duplicitous, liar
You mirror me double
And you turn upside down.
Mirror, mirror
Knavish little thief
You always show me looking young
And there where I laugh, I cry …

The mirror brings a breeze
It carries a secret menace
Vast moisture in these places
No one gives you a hand.

Mirror, mirror …

The mirror broke in three
And dragged itself into deeper places
Two to follow the sign
We live in a white darkness …

Mirror, mirror …

A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I ‘ve never seen

He throws the net to catch fish. he catches birds,
he sets a boat on the ground, a garden in the water,
he cries, kisses the dirt, goes to live abroad,
lives on the five roads, he becomes a man

A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I ‘ve never seen

He goes to take a stone, he throws it away
he goes to carve it, he makes miracles
he takes a little boat, he reaches the oceans
he seeks uprising, he seeks tyrants

A beautiful and strange country
like the one that luck gave me, I ‘ve never seen

Όμορφη και παράξενη πατρίδα
ω σαν αυτή που μου ‘λαχε δεν είδα

A human being does not need much
to be calm and without malice

a little food a little wine
Christmas and Easter

and where he makes his nest and stays
for no one to reach him there

But the things came differently
they wake him up at the break of dawn

they turn everything around on him
and they consume his little life

and the bite of food from his mouth
right at the sweetest moment

they even take that
that they may enjoy it, the strong ones!

May they enjoy it, the strong ones
for them there is never enough to satisfy them

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Χαρά στους που ‘ναι οι Δυνατοί
γι’ αυτούς δεν έχει χόρταση.

A decorated ship goes out in the mountains
And begins its maneuvering “hoist! haul!”
It drops anchor among the pinecones
And loads up with fresh air from both sides

It is made from black rock and from dreams
and it has an innocent boatswain and a crafty sailor
from the depths it reaches to the old times
it unloads hard times, sighs and difficulties

Come, Christ and Lord I say and feel doubt
such a mad ship, ship of madness
for years we have been traveling on it and we have not sunk
we have changed a thousand captains

We never took into account all the cataclysms
we engaged in everything and passed through it
and we have, on our mast, a great look-out
and always the Sun, the Great Sun

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Κατακλυσμούς ποτέ δε λογαριάσαμε
μπήκαμε μες στα όλα και περάσαμε
κι έχουμε στο κατάρτι μας βιγλάτορα
παντοτινό τον Ήλιο τον Ηλιάτορα

1. Thourios
2. Patriotic Hymn
3. Revolutionary Song
4. O my orphaned children

[vocals, arrangement & music direction: Dimitris Lagios]

“. .the first song is the original [Thourios / War Song] as it was heard in the revolutionary days; the other two are French melodies and the final one is the Marseillaise as they were singing it in the Heptanese, (i.e. “the Seven Islands”, the Ionian islands) during the period of occupation by the French, so that the French thought they were singing their national anthem. All the lyrics are revolutionary verses of Ferraios.”
“War Song”
words: Rigas Ferraios

For how long, brave young men, shall we live in the narrows,
isolated like lions, in the rocks and mountain spaces?
Caves shall we inhabit, and branches regard,
to leave the world, for bitter bitter slavery?
For how long, brave young men, shall we live in the narrows,
isolated like lions, in the rocks and mountain spaces?

For how long, brave young men, shall we live in the narrows,
isolated like lions, in the rocks and mountain spaces?
Shall we lose brothers and sisters, our homeland, our parents,
our friends, our children, and all our relatives?
Better it is to live for one hour in freedom
than forty years, in slavery, slavery and prison.

Better it is to live for one hour in freedom
than forty years, in slavery, slavery and prison.

All the nations
poetry: Rigas Ferraios

All the nations fight
and rush against the Tyrants
All the nations fight
and rush against the Tyrants
they are searching for vengeance
and they annihilate them
and they run for glory
with joy into the fire!
and they run for glory
with joy into the fire!

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Iakinthe’s voice is from the mud
ready to flutter its wings the little carnation flower
take me my golden wind I ask you please
blow like a little leaf

When Iakinthe says I love you so much
the old plasters of my poor world fall down
and from the bare walls the sunrise comes in
to clothe my light

When Iakinthe plays with the smooth pebbles of the beach
green in her hands shines Mytilini**
thousands of enigmas, thousands and obscure
and all of them she solves

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Iakinthe: a girl’s name [also the flower, Hyacinth] and the name of the composer’s daughter
**Mytilini: the island of Lesbos)

It is the color that drives me crazy,
that drives me crazy,
It makes a wreath on my face,
it marks me.

How I fear a color like that,
how it intoxicates me, how I hate it;
how I hate it!
How I feel fear with a color like that,
how it intoxicates me, how I hate it;
how I hate it!

Closed passions, imprisoned,
imprisoned.
In the blood passion they bring me thirst,
alone I am burning.

How I feel fear with a color like that,
how it intoxicates me, how I hate it;
how I hate it!

The color bursts on the stone,
in the sand.
It goes with the mother, it goes with mourning,
it goes with everything.

How I fear a color like that,
how it intoxicates me, how I hate it;
how I hate it!
How I feel fear with a color like that,
how it intoxicates me, how I hate it!
How I love that mauve!

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Not even a wave is heard
on the deserted shore
you would say that the sea is sleeping
in the embrace of the earth.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Who is this [woman]
who is coming down,
dressed in white,
from the mountain?

Now that this
young woman appears
the grass bears
tender blossoms.

And straightaway opens
its fine beauties
and the head
is nodding.

And in love,
to not allow
it to tread on it
it pleads.

Red and beautiful
has she lips,
like the petals
of the rose.

When the dawn breaks
and the young dawn
a light small rain
sends freshness.

And her hair’s
lovely abundance
on her breast
shines gold.

Her eyes have
where they laugh
the color which is
in the sky

Who is this [woman]
who is coming down,
dressed in white,
from the mountain?

(translation: Eva Johanos)