Marios Frangoulis / Μάριος Φραγκούλης

I see a crowd of people rolling by,
But not a soul is smiling at me
I see sick children on their beds
And withered branches on the trees.

I’ve cast love into a deep place
And spread my bed to sleep with fear
I keep finding graves and a world
Which feels no pain
Whenever I may go another mistake
Torments me.

Which prophet will be heard now
Like a voice inside a closed cistern?
In an empty orphaned world
What howl will echo from the sky?

I’ve abandoned birds in the wilderness
And squandered light in the neighborhoods
I loathe and fear
The return
See who I am on the way
For my own loss.

Τα πουλιά παράτησα στις ερημιές
και το φως σπατάλησα στις γειτονιές
Δεν τον θέλω και φοβάμαι
το γυρισμό.
Δες ποιος είμαι πού πηγαίνω
για το χαμό.

That morning I said “Good day” to him
That morning I said “Good day” to him.

Every crazy kid
has in his hand
a kiss from the All Holy One
and a knife.

And his mother doesn’t sing
And his mother doesn’t sing.

Every time they are slaughtered
two doves
the night burns
in his two hands.

And the girl doesn’t speak
and the girl doesn’t speak.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

The sea is deep,
and love is big
I have a pain in my soul
and who will remove it

The sea is sweet,
a caress together with a teardrop
and it rolls me foaming
to the end of the horizon

The sea is a child,
he runs and I cannot reach him
a child in his love also
which like a child I lose

Το πέλαγο είναι παιδί,
τρέχει και δεν το φτάνω
παιδί και στην αγάπη του,
που σαν παιδί το χάνω.

Once upon a time,
As fairy tales begin,
I pursued a dream
To learn the truth.

Is she a sun? Is she a star?
Who’s seen her? Who knows her?
Why, oh why
Is she like an unopened heart?

Once upon a time,
An angel wayfarer
Wrote her name
On a radiant beach.

But when the wind blew
Who was to see her?
Who was to know her?
why, oh way,
Is she like a dead spark?

Once upon a time,
In the fire and in the struggle,
I think I saw her
As a red drop.

But before summer was over,
Who was to see her?
Who was to know her?
Why, oh why,
Has she been forgotten in life?

Μα πριν βγει το καλοκαίρι
ποιος την είδε ποιος την ξέρει.
Αχ γιατί, αχ γιατί
να ‘χει στη ζωή ξεχαστεί.

(in English)
All alone am I
ever since your goodbye
all alone, with just the beat of my heart
People all around, but I don’t hear a sound
just the lonely beating of my heart

(in Greek)
Absorbed in talking we lost touch with time
possessed by grief, we were overtaken by night
Extinguish the tears with your handkerchief,
so may i drink the sun from your lips.

Don’t ask the sky,
the cloud, the moon;
your dark gaze
has taken something from the night.

What came upon us and saddened us
cunningly struck us like a knife.
Extinguish the tears with a handkerchief,
so I may drink the sun from your lips.

Don’t ask the sky,
the cloud, the moon;
your dark gaze
has taken something from the night.

Μην τον ρωτάς τον ουρανό
το σύννεφο και το φεγγάρι
το βλέμμα σου το σκοτεινό
κάτι απ’ τη νύχτα έχει πάρει

(spoken)
My life was not the life of musician
it was, rather, that of a dangerous and restless young man
who music managed somehow to calm
and to make him, at least on the surface, beyond laws
and I began to write music
so that they would fall in love with me, as many as I wanted
and whose love I wished for

(sung)

Your name brought to me the whistling of the wind
Your name and the soul trembled

Prepare yourself, my heart told me, but each day
to your health the rain drank me

Tenderly at night you call out love to me
tenderly also I went searching for you
In the morning you imagine me to be a rose of the garden
in the morning, your thorn is here.

But if I don’t find you, don’t forget
whatever you crucify you worship.

Your touch engraved my body from memory
faith first and then persecutions
Someone else wore- and it shattered me-
your scent, and I left, pale.

Tenderly at night you call out love to me
tenderly also I went searching for you
In the morning you imagine me to be a rose of the garden
in the morning, your thorn is here.

But if I don’t find you, don’t forget
whatever you crucify you worship.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

[note from the creator of the video: 'This musical piece was composed by Manos Hatzidakis in the beginning of the nineteen-sixties, and was featured in the film "300 Spartans" as an instrumental theme. The lyrics to this exceptional piece of music were added much later by Lina Nikolakopoulou, and were first recorded by Dimitra Galani on the album "Dance with my shadow" (1998). This version recorded by Mario Frangoulis on the album "The season of love" (2010).']

Oh wide sea
I love you because you resemble, to me
a deep sea
you don’t calm down a single moment
as if you have a heart
my own small heart

Crazy dreams
that fly on the wave
they reach the heart
and wake up our youth
crazy deams
and passions flutter like birds

I have a desire
that devours me and melts me
I have a desire I will come to say it to you
oh my sister you sea that I love

Waves birds
in the journeys you go
the distant ones
take my hidden grief
from there far away
and bring joy to me too

Κύματα πουλιά
στα ταξίδια σας που πάτε
τα αλαργινά
την κρυφή μου λύπη πάρτε
κι απο ‘κει μακριά
να μου φέρετε κι εμένα τη χαρά

Old roads, which I loved and hated endlessly,
let me walk under the shadows of the houses,
the nights of coming back, unavoidable, and the city, dead.

My insignificant presence I discover in every corner.
Let me meet you someday, lost spectre of my Desire, me too

Walking, forgotten and rebellious
holding a trembling spark in my damp palms.

And I kept on walking in the night without recognizing anyone
And no one, either, and no one, either, recognizing me, recognizing me.

The swallow is but one single swallow, and the cost of Spring is dear
For the sun to return, much work is wanted
It wants thousands dying at the Wheels
it wants the living, too, to give their blood.

My God, master builder, you walled me inside the mountains
My God, master builder, you walled me inside the mountains

The body of May was taken away by magicians
they have buried it inside a tomb of the open sea
in a deep well they have it locked away
the darkness grew fragrant, and the whole abyss.

My God, master builder, even inside the lilac bloom Thou art there
My God, master builder, even inside the lilac bloom Thou art there

Θε μου Πρωτομάστορα μέσα στις πασχαλιές και Συ
Θε μου Πρωτομάστορα μύρισες την Ανάσταση

In your eyes plays the morning star
the sun bathes the dream of the earth
a wide river is love, and deep
it has grown tired and is going to sleep

For what journey did you set out
remember me and love me
the dawn is stealing a small kiss from you

On your lips burns a bitter small kiss
what faraway journey is calling you
you will leave, stranger, with white sails
forgetting is awaiting the morrow

For what journey did you set out
remember me and love me
the dawn is stealing a small kiss from you

(translation: Eva Johanos)