Nikos Papazoglou / Νίκος Παπάζογλου

Best wishes to the Greek who forgets
and in the middle of Chicago lives in freedom
the one who does not know and does not love
- are you sure it isn’t your fault as well, poor guy? -
and in Athens too, he lives in exile.

Ach, Greece, I love you
and deeply thank you,
because you taught me and I know
how to go on breathing wherever I happen to be
to die wherever I happen to step,
and not suffer you.

Ach, Greece, let me tell you,
before you crow like a cock,
you deny me thirteen times.
You push me around, you bully me,
you kick me like a stray dog,
and you hang yourself above me.

The sweetest home
is the heart
- Odysseas, come back to me! -
whose holy soil
is pain and joy

Each single one is one [alone]
in his boundary of pain
and I am just a someone
who takes you for a walk.

Ach, Greece, I love you
and deeply thank you,
because you taught me and I know
how to go on breathing wherever I happen to be
to die wherever I happen to step,
and not endure you.

Ach, Greece, let me tell you,
before you crow like a cock,
you deny me thirteen times.
You push me around, you bully me,
you kick me like a stray dog,
and you hang yourself above me.

Αχ Ελλάδα θα στο πω
πριν λαλήσεις πετεινό
δεκατρείς φορές μ’ αρνιέσαι
μ’ εκβιάζεις μου κολλάς
σαν το νόθο με πετάς
μα κι απάνω μου κρεμιέσαι

We are entering Aquarius
Fires will blaze
The times will bring water
So say those who know
And yet hearts will get burned

Everything around changes
And everything stays the same
But me — her little hands
Tie me and untie me

We are entering Aquarius
Pisces will leave
So it was written
In the faded stars
That I had seen in her eyes

Everything around changes
And everything stays the same
But me — her little hands
Tie me and untie me

Όλα τριγύρω αλλάζουνε
κι όλα τα ίδια μένουν
και μένα τα χεράκια της
με λύνουν και με δένουν

You are a rock on the side of the street
and I’m a tired child in your shadow
You look like word that creates the world
and I a drop that wets your lips

Witch Circe where are you taking me
in which corner are you leaving me and erasing me
I forgot what I’m looking for
I live in your world and I wonder

You play in cards my black happiness
but I wait silent in your door
The night comes and you shine in front of me
like a survivor I swim in your sheet

Witch Circe where are you taking me
in which corner are you leaving me and erasing me
I forgot what I’m looking for
I live in your world and I wonder

I push the night,
she catches fire and it’s becoming morning;
in the last sip
I make an oath that it ends finally,
everything that ends.

I enter the train at dawn,
to find me at another place
this day that will come in,
to save me from there,
where I was a stranger.

I go away, I go away, every day I go away
Meter by meter, all farther
I go away, I go away, all these years I go away
In my heart all the closer

I throw a light in my eyes,
and I interrogate alone,
my separated self
which has split the world
by mistake.

I wonder what is to blame,
that we dream while awake,
and whether it is this oblivion
that opens doors in the morning
at the first tapping.

Μάτια μου μάτια μου
λιμνοθάλασσες καημένες
να βουτάν’ οι καρδιές
και να βγαίνουν στεγνωμένες
Μάτια μου μάτια μου
λιμνοθάλασσες καημένες
να βουτάν’ οι καρδιές
και να βγαίνουν στεγνωμένες

Άσε το δρόμο να σε πηγαίνει,
κι εκεί που θέλει να σε μαθαίνει.
Και έχει γλύκα που δε θυμάσαι
και για κανένα μη φοβάσαι.

Modern music by the great Savvopoulos for a staging of an ancient comedy by Aristophanes in 1975; this version sung by Nikos Papazoglou.

Πότε Βούδας, πότε Κούδας, πότε Ιησούς κι Ιούδας
Έχω καταλάβει ήδη της ζωής μου το παιχνίδι
Έχω καταλάβει ήδη της ζωής μου το παιχνίδι
Πότε Βούδας, πότε Κούδας, πότε Ιησούς κι Ιούδας.