Yiorgos Ntalaras / Γιώργος Νταλάρας

I haven’t gone on long journeys
my years have had roots, they have been trees
which my heart has covered with leaves
and has let them bloom on the rock.

I haven’t gone on long journeys
the people I’ve loved have been woods
my friends have been moons and islands
which my heart has been thirsty for reaching.

You have been my longest journey
you are the night, the day’s dream,
my little fatherland, my body , my start,
my earth, my breath and my air.

I haven’t gone on long journeys,
my heart has travelled and this is enough for me
(my heart has travelled) to dreams, to wet feelings,
so as to breath the secret world in.

You have been my longest journey
you are the night, the day’s dream,
my little fatherland, my body , my start,
my earth, my breath and my air

Pay attention to your destiny
and be careful how you walk in life.
When you are asleep, someone else creates history
and someone plays with your soul.

We all have fate which is called destiny
and no one can avoid it.
There is no theory, nor ships, nor trains
and each one of us struggles the way he knows and the way he can.
Since I was a child, I have been dreaming of fires in my sleep.

No matter how many things you give for love, they are few
and know it, that there is no reward.
Give them and leave and don’t waste any chance,
don’t place your soul in the margins of life.

We all have fate which is called destiny
and no one can avoid it.
There is no theory, nor ships, nor trains
and each one of us struggles the way he knows and the way he can.
Since I was a child, I have been dreaming of fires in my sleep.

On Sirius, there are children,
they have never let sorrow into their heart;
they have seen no wars and deaths,
and over their blue school suit
on Sunday, they wear their good clothes.

At night when they look at the sky
one star like a sea-blue feather
very strangely strikes their mind;
it looks to them like a far away little ship
and they go and ask their teacher about it

He tells them: dear children, that is the Earth,
the disease, the wound of the universe;
there, they sing songs, they write poems,
and, indefatigable hunters of their dreams,
they embroider their walls with messages.

On Sirius, the children wept
and, from that night on, they have let
one sorrow into their sweet little heart.

Come close to me, I am not the fire
The fires, the rivers quench them,
the rains drown them,
the north winds hunt them down.

I am not, I am not the fire.

Come close to me, I am not the wind…
The winds, the mountains cut them off,
the summer heat reduces them to a buzz,
the floods sweep them away.

I am not, I am not the wind.

I am nothing but a wayfarer,
one tired of conquest,
who lays down at the root of an olive tree
to listen to the song of the cicadas
And if you want, come, let’s listen to it together

I have a little kafeneio
On the waterfront
It is built of the tears
Of those left to live here
And to wait.

I have a little kafeneio
Always hearing the same things
About the boats and journeys
Of those left to live here
And to wait.

I have a little kafeneio
It’s an old ruin really
Ah, if only it were a ship
For those left to live here
And to wait.

The sea in your breasts
and I dry land and stone,
hidden touch, my homeland
measures of my emigrations.

Eros and loneliness
have the same root;
my many-colored love
my deep grey eyes

Naked islands your lips
the myths of Singularity;
kisses sweet flashes
memory and forgetting

(translation: Eva Johanos)

The darkness of the room
will come along with you
get dressed…
and also this night that you kept for your own
get dressed…

Day dawns on the world
Day dawns on the world

With the kisses that I planted
here deep inside you
hurry….
and the ones that tonight you won for your own
hurry…

Day dawns on the world
Day dawns on the world

Your face a moon
on the screen of the sky
and in the peace of your eyes
the light of sunset.

Let your hair down again tonight
to make the night come sooner.
Let your embrace cover me
and may nobody find me.

Secretly, come, one night,
secretly, until morning,
from the dreams let us steal life.

Your face a moon
travelling into silence.
Like an unknown word, she too,
whom no one has ever seen.

The road that I have taken
to the farthest reaches of your body
is like a launching-pad to the moon
with the stars as spectators.

Secretly, come, one night,
secretly, until morning,
from the dreams let us steal life.