Tasos Livaditis / Τάσος Λειβαδίτης

That morning I awoke with the unbearable
sorrow that I had never spoken of sunflowers,
it was curious, if not disgraceful, I looked in the
rooms, I searched in the hallway, I went to the basement,
*how did my childhood fit inside here*
I wondered, I smiled, *I must have been somewhere else*,
and I remembered my mother in the evenings all alone in the
bedroom, she wore that old hat with the
wings as if she wanted to show that everything had finished,
I sat, undone, on the staircase, then they rang
the bell, I went and opened the door, it was, again, the man
with the ax, *you scumbag, I tell him,
what are you trying to prove*, I am simply thinking of you.
*And you imagine you will get out of it.*

Tasos Livaditis
(translation: Eva Johanos)

If you want to call yourself a human being
you won’t stop for a moment your struggle for peace and justice.
You will go out in the streets, you will shout, your lips will be bloody from crying out
your face will be bloody from the bullets- but not a step backward.
Every one of your shouts a stone thrown at the windows of the exploiters of war
Every gesture of yours is to throw injustice over a cliff.
And take care: don’t forget yourself for even a moment.
Just as you are reminded for a while of your childhood years
you leave thousands of children to be torn to bits while they play unsuspected at
civilization
for a moment if you look at the sunset
tomorrow the people will be lost in the night of the war
so as you stop for a moment to daydream
millions of human dreams will become ash beneath the mortar shells.
You don’t have time
you don’t have time for yourself
if you want to call yourself a human being.
If you want to call yourself a human being
you might need to leave your mother, your beloved
or your child.
You will not hesitate.
You will renounce your lamp and your bread
You will renounce the evening’s relaxation on the doorsill of your home
for the rough road that leads to tomorrow.
Before nothing will you feel timidity, nor will you fear.
I know, it is beautiful to listen to a harmonica in the evening,
to look at the stars, to dream,
it is beautiful bent over the red mouth of your love
to listen to her telling you her dreams for the future.
But you have to bid farewell to all of that and to start out
because you are responsible for all the harmonicas of the world,
for all of the stars, for all of the lamps and
for all of the dreams
if you want to call yourself a human being.
If you want to call yourself a human being
it might be necessary that they lock you in prison for twenty or
even more years
but you, even in prison you will always remember the spring,
your mother and the world.
You even within the square measurements of your cell
you will continue your road on the earth.
And when in the endless silence, at night
You will hit the wall of your cell with your finger
from the other side of the wall Spain will answer you.
You, as you see your years pass and your hair
whitening,
you will not get old,
You, even in prison each morning you will dawn younger
Since all the time new struggles begin in the world
if you want to call yourself a human being.
If you want to call yourself a human being
you will have to be able to die on any morning.
The evening before, in isolation you will write a long, tender
letter to your mother
You will write the date on the wall, the initials of your name and one
word
Peace
as if you were writing the whole story of your life.
To be able to die on any morning
to be able to stand before six rifles
as if you stood before the entire future.
To be able, above the volley that is killing you,
to hear the millions of simple people who
sing as they fight for peace.
If you want to call yourself a human being.

-Tasos Livaditis

(translation: Eva Johanos)

And look, we got here
without luggage
but with such a beautiful moon
And I dreamed of a better world
Poor humanity, you couldn’t
write even one more chapter
Like a piece of wood from a sad shipwreck
our elder continent travels

But at nights how beautifully
that the earth smells

Of course he loved
the ideals of humanity
but the birds
were flying farther away

Cruel heartless world
that never opened an umbrella
above the tree that is getting wet

But at nights how beautifully
that the earth smells

Then they discovered the compass
so they could die elsewhere
and avarice
so they could remain dead forever

But as the night falls
a flute somewhere
or a star is pleading
for the whole humanity

But at nights how beautifully
that the earth smells

As I’m staying in my room
I suddenly get brilliant ideas
I wear Father’s jacket
so there’s two of us
And if anyone ever heard me bark
it was to give
the room an air of countryside

But at nights how beautifully
that the earth smells

Someday we will deliver justice
with a star or a flower
like a song that, as it rains
takes the poor men’s side

But at nights how beautifully
that the earth smells

Give me your hand…
Give me your hand…

Δος μου το χέρι σου..
Δος μου το χέρι σου..

So what are we doing here
and when will the world change
But hurry tonight tonight
put aside all the oblivion
and in its place
let me put a little anemone*.

Ah- great – Ah- great
to be alone
for you to be two,
for us all to be.

[*anemone: a small, deeply colored flower...]