Nikolas Asimos / Νικόλας Άσιμος

I leave behind the markets and the bazaars
I want to run in the reeds and the meadows
to become a rider again –
come and take me again, sky
cause i wasn’t a criminal and
I need your grace, man

Hey Bagasa! Are you having a good time up there
just one breath I am seeking to heal me
I don’t believe you are jeering at me
as I gaze at you, you pay no attention
offer me some solution
it won’t cost you much

And I will be make little songs for you
with the best lyrics in the refrain
about my lost struggle
for which only the little stars stayed to mourn

I am leaving behind the noise and the people
I have had enough slaps and I am looking for ways
to escape from fate
and I have a flood within me, sky
cause i wasn’t a criminal
and you would like to flirt with me, blue one

Hey Bagasa! Are you having a good time up there
just take a glance down here
there where you’re sleeping and sailing
suddenly you flash and thunder boom
And you put down whatever comes to your mind
Don’t think that you upset me

Because I make little songs for you
with the best lyrics in the refrain
about my lost struggle
for which only the little stars stayed to mourn

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Bagasa: this word translates as ‘rascal’ or even ‘scoundrel’- someone who is untrustworthy and succeeds by dishonest means; however, it may be used familiarly as a term of admiration, and in this context may be understood as “friend.”. some people interpret this word as a reference to God, others, to the sky.)

Γιατί σου φτιάχνω τραγουδάκια
με τα πιο όμορφα στιχάκια στο ρεφρέν.
Για το χαμένο μου αγώνα
που τ’ αστεράκια μείναν μόνα να τον κλαίν’.

I remember looking at you on the edge of the cliff
balancing you disturbed the mistake of the time
your entire being palpitated in the light
the people frightened your clear essence.

At the collapse of this world
I, the rider of the sky
with the people you seek contact
but that thread has also been broken.

The years which passed left you with wounds
you carried your now into other times as well
you become one like nothing with the ocean
and you became acquainted with the infinite in the other self.

At the collapse of this world
I, the rider of the sky
you hold the thread of Ariadne
and from their sickness you escape again.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Στο φαλημέντο του κόσμου αυτού
ο καβαλάρης εγώ τ’ ουρανού
της Αριάδνης το μίτο κρατάς
κι απ την αρρώστια τους και πάλι το σκας.

And now our last message.
Dedicated to all kinds of margins,
far margins and standard-bearers
to all of those who battled.

Only an earthquake will save us, a terrible cataclysm
for everything to become parsley, for the civilization to be lost.
-Like Atlantis.

The flattening made me, also, bald, I wear a cap
you take me to the cinerama, Krishna Hare
and me, wise with a stomach zipper,
which always stays closed when it is hungry,
but also on its slant to say “au revoir” to you.

If your face doesn’t fall how will you be noticed?
what does he say to you a shaman and a visionary.
-Like Atlantis.

The flattening ate me and even if I was a mountain, they gave me a bath
the revolution or all of the planet,
not even a shelf is able to fix me,
apologize to my kidney disease,
don’t beat mud clots in your lie, you.

Now you are all getting stoned with songs from the tekke,*
only you can’t find a tekke where you can get a water-pipe.
-Like Atlantis, too.

If the many Lord have mercies has bored God as well, how am I to blame?
Instead of building churches to me
to adore me as a naked conclusion
without theologians and priest-farts
they go and make them to the same god.

Only an earthquake will save us, from the complex in other words
for everything to become parsley, for the whole earth to sink.
-Like Atlantis.

(translation: Eva Johanos
*tekke: this word comes from Turkish and has a different meaning in Turkish than in Greek; for Turkish Sufis the tekke is a place of prayer; for Greeks it is a house of pleasure)

Μόνο ένας σεισμός μας σώζει, απ’ το πλέγμα δηλαδής
μαϊντανός να γίνουν όλα, να βουλιάξει όλη η γης.
- Όπως η Ατλαντίς.

I love and am indifferent
and I hold the right chorus
thus I will love you
as I love myself

Don’t misunderstand the words I ‘ve said
it’s the simplest recipe of this world
feel me so I can feel you even if it hurts
it’s very expensive, I tell you, to love

Look into my eyes with patience
get rid of the influence of the rest of the world
feel me so I can feel you even if it hurts
It’s very dear, I tell you, to love

I love and am indifferent
and I have learned that with you
paradoxically to love myself
as I love you

I can’t bear the image of this world
nor am I going to be lost in its shadow
the fairies have bewitched you
you are going in circles again in another’s embrace

And let us not be frightened, my light, by the wounds
next to our golden moments are these as well
feel me so I can feel you even if it hurts
It’s very precious, I tell you, to love

I love and am indifferent
and I ‘ve created a new self
from now on I love my self
as I love You

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Αγαπάω κι αδιαφορώ
κι έχω φτιάξει έναν καινούργιο εαυτό
τώρα πια με αγαπάω και μένα
όπως εσένα

I will come some night to find you
and I will tell you my secret
I thought about it really hard to tell it to you
and let them say that it is crazy

Through the darkness and the light
I am the son of everyone
with freedom I have become one with myself
and I am nobody’s pawn

I ruined everybody’s games,
for no clown will I sacrifice myself,
they think of me as a fool, a wasted face
but in your embrace I find ecstasy

Whatever you say you can’t take me
to where violence and stupor are wandering
I don’t have a religion, nor a country
everybody threw me away, but you, I want you to be alive

I don’t say it in order to boast
I asked for a lot in wanting to be loved
I gave everything and I will give it again
that’s why I am able to love you.

You won’t recognise me when you see me,
I am a hunter and a dreamer,
don’t let them trap you in a showroom
and in paradises where you ‘ll get lost.

I don’t live with your laws
with playing cards and stars,
to have an easy ride
is not what matters to me…

As much as they alienated me
they were fake castles
and I have come outside
I don’t need them

In this messed-up world
one has remained
and no matter how rarely your nature desires
he will also be corroded

… love me, my gaze
help me, my blood
it is hard for us to die
my heart…
I am afraid of life

(translation: Eva Johanos)

…Αγάπησέ με βλέμμα μου
βοήθησέ με αίμα μου
δύσκολο να πεθάνουμε
καρδιά μου…
φοβάμαι τη ζωή.

We are terrorists, all-all
We are terrorists,beginning with Manolis.
Who didn’t go to the army
He was afraid of war and he didn’t want weapons
Who is the terrorist, who?
Sloppy Manolis the big happy kid
Because he was never accepted to become
a big person with dirty feet.

We are terrorists, we are terrorists
And my ancestors who were workers were terrorists too
With terrorism power dies
We don’t want the church, police, military or parliament.

Is the government the terrorist?
No the government is order
Is the worker the terrorist?
No, the worker is the dead body, and
He is in the party, he is still sleeping!!!But is the party the same as the dead body?
No the party is one.

Kookookookooay*
your dead body, people (x2)
In order to have a good retirement, range
And arrangement, classified and numbered
Wound-up soft-wit. Don’t be
A Terrorist, a denier of religion, a peasant,
Unsubmissive, lazy, without a homeland, loafer.
To be a democrat, gullible and
socialist/thief** lighter of candles.***

We are terrorists, we are terrorists
And my ancestors who were workers were terrorists too
With terrorism power dies
We don’t want the church, police, military or parliament.

Are the cops terrorists?
No, the cops are sentinels.
Is the battalion the terrorist?
No, the battalion is the fatherland.
(Long live the fatherland)
(Long live the fatherland)
(Long live)
(Long live man)
(Long live)
(Hey, they take you to the army and have you f*@k sacks)
(I will tell you malaka if you don’t say it)
(Long live man)
(Long live the fatherland)
Is our work terrorism?
No, work equals honor.
Are the priests terrorists? No, religion is godly.
Maybe the laws are terrorizing?
No, the laws legislate
Does terrorism equal parliament?
But no, our parliament is the vote
And the voter is fatal!!!
This was said by the first mute masker, this was.

We are terrorists, we are terrorists
And my ancestors who were workers were terrorists too
With terrorism power dies
We don’t want the church, police, military or parliament.

Does terrorism equal Daphni?****
No, it beats people into psychological balance
And after it puts us together! Back to the line
But then school means terror!!!
No. You are taught to be faithful to the laws
Do the magistrates terrorize?
But, our magistrates are the bench.
But, maybe anyway the bench flattens everything out?
No. The bench restores our shape, shoes us,
Screws the steering wheel firmly to our behinds!!

One-two-three-forward with joy.
Government, school, religion, army
They legislate for us happiness
The syndicates the party a barrier
Vomit and feel nausea.

In order for him to finally be able (dammit) to lift
His head, the terrorist which is inside us
(and he is sleeping the joker).

We are terrorists, all-all
We are terrorists,beginning with Manolis.

Who is the terrorist, who?

Sloppy Manolis the big happy kid
Because he was never accepted to become
a big person with dirty feet…

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Kookookookooay: play on communist party name
**socialist/thief: play on similar-sounding words
‎***candiles: large candles in church
****Daphni: famous/infamous mental institution near Athens)

Ο χαχόλης ο Μανώλης ο φαιδροπαιδαράς
Γιατί ποτέ δεν δέχτηκε να γίνει
Βρωμοποδαράς…

(narration)

I think she was a tall lady. . .
Delicate. . .with a bearing like a torch. . .
Her eyes dreamy. . . Strange. . .
They had something mysterious about them before the lights. . .
They played like restless seas. . .
The silent lady with her silken mask. . .
I remembered the wind. . .
That icy one. . .Of the night. . .
Which would tear the leaves from the trees in the squares. . .
It was that quiet. . .
And she went towards the forests, engaged. . .
They called her, my brother, Siopia [Silencia]. . .
Her clothes smelled, you would say, of the rain and the moon. . .
Her eyelashes of silk. . . glistened in the vapor. . .
She was. . . like the soul of the lake’s water. . .
She died, he says. . . Before meeting me. . .
How did they call her? I know nothing. . . I forgot it. . .
I forget even the color of her eyes. . .
Now if I saw her again. . .
I would call her Ulalume. . .

(Song)

It was as if I was expecting you, lady,
tonight when there is not a breath stirring outside,
and I said: She will come tonight from the waters, and from the forests!

She will come tonight since my soul is flitting
since my eye jumps like a fish,
and she will smell of lights, sun, rain, the new moon!. . .

And there, I am cleaning the seat for you,
I am decorating my chamber with wild mint,
and with you I am already beginning, golden, a conversation.

How to. . . the world will remain with the “Bah”
that they said I was crazy, that you had become smoke
and supposedly hazy clouds, around the moon. . .

Night came and you did not show up. . .
I moved to find you on the street, alas!
but you stumbled (where I stumbled), golden one, and you with me! . .

So much you loved me, lady,
that I heard my steps doubled!
I stepped like a blind man into the water? and you near me! . . .

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Cut off from everyone and everything
in an enchanted orbit
I took the road to leave but I came
nothing touches me
in my strange time.

We know that it is a lie
but let’s become one, the two of us
so I may embrace you, and you embrace me
so you can deceive yourself, and I deceive myself
so I can love you and you can love me
even if it’s just for a little while, so tiny
Like two Bengals making love
they are like telepathic messages
in the creases of our faces

Without flags and without ideas
without any detours
the day has gotten dressed to the taste of the night
and my soul leaps
into the coldness of the boundlessness

If you want to touch the truth
step outside of the habit
pull yourself away and come shampoo me
even if I am old-fashioned
so I may embrace you, and you embrace me
even if it’s just for a little while, so tiny
Sickle-wielding weapons pass by
in the cement cities of death the event
leaves you unmoved.

I give you again my existence now
armored time
with a hard, icy tenderness
I approach you
I have no more to do with self-delusions

We know that it is a lie
but let’s become one, the two of us
see, we will make little lyrics
that walk like little crabs
obliquely and exactly the caresses
pallid light in the darkness
with a little jump I will find you again
in the charming trap of my defeat I pass
*Venceremos, Venceremos.

(translation: Eva Johanos)
*We will be victorious- Spanish

Ξέρουμε πως είναι ψέμα
μα ας γίνουμε τα δυο μας ένα
δες θα φτιάχνουμε στιχάκια
να περπατάν σαν καβουράκια
πλάγια κι ακριβά τα χάδια
φως αχνό μες στα σκοτάδια
Μ’ ένα μου πήδο θα σε ξαναβρώ
στο μαγκανοπήγαδο της ήττας μου περνώ
Venceremos, Venceremos.

I have a little duck who goes “pa”
who goes “pa”, ”pa”, “pa” for me.
And a little rabbit, which all the time is moving me
which all the time is moving its ears for me.

And it just doesn’t bother me at all
If you pass by and don’t talk to me again.

Maybe you come back
when I ‘ll have been lost
And perhaps they’ll have buried me, or I will have
or I will have faded.

Just don’t let it bother you at all
as if you have got accustomed to that, you as well.

Και ας μη σου καίγεται καρφί
Και ας συνήθισες και ας συνήθισες και εσύ

I with my ideas
and you with your money,
I think you want it singly and in pairs* for yourself;
I don’t want conversation with you,
nor acquaintance.

I will hit you where it hurts
I will not let anyone buy things for me.
I will anoint myself a knight and a Jedi
and if I sober up
I will tell you “goodbye**.”

And even if the gods are persuaded
that it is necessary,
for war I never
played the tough guy, myself
and I don’t even have a squirt gun
in the shack.

I will follow my road as far as it goes
I will not let anyone
buy things for me,
I will fire anyone who mocks me,
a thousand and two*** truths
my pain births.

I give it to you ready
and you want it to be yours
fainting spells which afflicted you
take all your money
and not even to my little fingernail
does your rule extend.

It doesn’t serve you to look at me
without any kind of power you
will blow your brains out.
You are a victim of the law and the class
you don’t even know the reasoning
you would need to subject me

(translation: Eva Johanos
*singly and in pairs: both ways, all ways
**goodbye: Asimos uses the English word
***a thousand and two: many)

Δε σε παίρνει εμένα να κοιτάξεις
χωρίς καμιά ουσία εσύ
θα τα τινάξεις.
Είσαι θύμα του νόμου και της τάξης
δεν ξέρεις καν το λόγο
για να με υποτάξεις

Μας εκτελούνε με σφαίρες ντούμ-ντούμ
σφαίρες ντούμ-ντούμ, σφαίρες ντούμ-ντούμ
κι εμείς ξεπουλιώμαστε στο γιουσουρούμ
ταρατατατζούμ για ένα κουστούμ.