Grigoris Bithikotsis / Γρηγόρης Μπιθικώτσης

Ivory ship
into my dream you came one dawn
and you took me on a little trip
to go around the world

I saw countries, I saw places
I saw the children who had become embittered
I got to know the the world and also met people
and I put pain in my heart

My ship start out
let’s go again to Athens
the birds sing in Attiki
Let’s go again to Pangrati
where the streets are full
of cheerful voices on Sunday

What can I say about Europe
What can I say about America
people don’t change
they have great problems there as well

I went to all the harbors
in narrow lanes I passed
youthful vigor and pride
I did not see my light anywhere.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Πήγα σ’ όλα τα λιμάνια
σε δρομάκια πέρασα στενά
λεβεντιά και περηφάνια
δεν είδα φως μου πουθενά.

I wanted to tell you something
and I will come to your table
with a complaint
with a bitter complaint
to wish you a good evening

You have abandoned a soul
in the cold and in the rain
with a complaint
with a bitter complaint
I will remind you of it once again

If you are a man with a heart
bring it with you one evening
Smiling
smiling warmly
I will welcome you.

Αν είσαι άντρας με καρδιά
φέρ’ την μαζί σου μια βραδιά
μ’ ένα χαμόγελο
μ’ ένα χαμόγελο ζεστό
θα σε καλωσορίσω

Misery poisoned passion
Poverty shattered the heart
the summers did not come for us
and life became so heavy

I will close my eyes, I will stretch out my arms
far from poverty, far from misery
I, too, will take the great road
I will close my eyes and see where it takes me

Where will be found shame to hold me back
in the mud and the wood roof
the poverty which has driven us to our knees
I feel as an even greater shame

I will close my eyes, I will stretch out my arms
far from poverty, far from misery
I, too, will take the great road
I will close my eyes and see where it takes me

(translation: Eva Johanos
“(1967) These lyrics were censored as they were considered to have communist content; later the song was interpreted (with doctored lyrics) by Vicky Moscholiou. . .”)

(1967 “. . .Οι στίχοι αυτοί λογοκρίθηκαν καθώς θεωρήθηκαν κομμουνιστικού περιεχομένου. Στη συνέχεια το τραγούδι με παραλλαγμένους στίχους θα ερμηνευθεί από την Βίκυ Μοσχολιού. . .”)

Ας ήταν τ’ όνειρο να βγει
στον ουρανό σεργιάνι.

My April, My blond April
And aromatic May, Oh my heart how can you put up with…
My heart how do you put up with
so much love and so much beauty?

The neighborhood is full of songs and kisses
My girlfriend’s name is Lenio
My girlfriend’s name is Lenio
My girlfriend’s name is Lenio and this is my secret.

My star, my pale star
Moon’s ray on the cordon shaped eyebrow
On your cordon shaped eye brow
My heart is hanging like a bird on the birdlime

The neighborhood is full of…

My flower, my flower full of scent
And rose full of fragrance, I will come to your mother
To your mother, to your mother I will come
To get her blessing and the mate that I love

The neighborhood is full of. . .

Γιομίζ’ η γειτονιά…

Bring me the sea, that I may bow down to her
bring me her sun that I may pray.

I fed your entrails, wave of the sea,
with thousands of graves in the deeps.

Bring me the sea, that I may bow down to her
bring me her sun that I may pray.

Bring me the sea, that I may sing of her;
bring me her sun that I may warm myself.

My dead loves will not come back;
put me on her bosom that I may go to sleep.

Bring me the sea, that I may sing of her;
bring me her sun that I may warm myself.

Bring me the sea, that I may bow down to her
bring me her sun that I may pray.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Φέρτε μου τη θάλασσα να τη προσκυνήσω,
φέρτε μου τον ήλιο της να προσευχηθώ.

At dawn I searched for you
in the late afternoon I found you
with my heart I spoke to you
into black fate I entered

The north wind strikes my door
and in my soul frost
and in my bitter eyes
moment by moment evening is falling

I sought your eyes
to walk in the light
to become a sweet dream
to leave old heartaches behind

The north wind strikes my door
and in my soul frost
and in my bitter eyes
moment by moment evening is falling

(translation: Eva Johanos)

In the underground tavern
In between smoke and swearing
(Upstairs the lantern was screaming)
All our company was drinking yesterday,
Yesterday, like every other night
Swallowing the bitter events that shape our lives.

Tightly stacked besides each other
Spitting on the earth’s face
Oh what a big torture
The torture of life is
No matter how hard our mind tries,
It remembers no happy day

Sun and oh blue sea
Depth of the fatherless sky
Of the dawn egg-yolked wrap
Carnation of the dusk
You shine then fade afar
Never entering our heart.

One’s father years ten now
Paralyzed, same as skeleton
The other’s wife life is short
slowing melting away
At Palamidi the son of Mazis
The daughter of Yiavis at Gkazi

It’s our cursed roots
It’s God’s hatred to us
It’s our own stupidity
But above all it’s our all the wine we’ve drunk
Whose fault it is?
No mouth has ever found the answer

Thus in the dark underground tavern
we drink always heads down
Like worms, every heel
that finds us steps on us
Cowardly, destined and without any willpower
We are, perhaps, expecting some miracle!

Έτσι στη σκοτεινή ταβέρνα
πίνουμε πάντα μας σκυφτοί.
Σαν τα σκουλήκια, κάθε φτέρνα
όπου μας έβρει μας πατεί.
Δειλοί, μοιραίοι κι άβουλοι αντάμα,
προσμένουμε, ίσως, κάποιο θάμα!

Unite, arms linked
Unite, hands joined
The mountains and the ravines, catch the song
Towns and harbors, enter in the dance

Today we marry the Sun
the Sun with his bride the most precious, dear
Easter*

Our Easter, our beloved girl
our fields, seas, mountains
mothers, daughters, slain brothers and sisters, fathers
a tree with one root, one source, one spring

Today we marry the Sun
the Sun with his bride the most precious, dear
Easter

Day of many years
the Champion, the Champion

(translation: Eva Johanos
*Πασχαλιά ~ can mean Easter, and also lilac)

Land of the lemon tree, of the olive
Land of the embrace, of the joy
Land of the pinetree, of the fir
of the brave man and of love.

Golden-green leaf
thrown in the sea.

Land of the arid meadow
Land of the grieved Blessed Mary
Land of the hot wind, of the unjust loss
of the bad weather, of the volcanos.

Golden-green leaf
thrown in the sea

Land of the girls that laugh
Land of the boys that get drunk
Land of the myron, of the salutations
Cyprus of the love and the dream.

Golden-green leaf
thrown in the sea.

Χρυσοπράσινο φύλλο
ριγμένο στο πέλαγο

With the little star of the dawn
if you come out to your window
and if you see a ship of the south
coming from foreign lands
send with your white birds
sweet kisses.

With the little star of the dawn
if you come out to your window
and if you see a ship of the south
coming from foreign lands
send with your white birds
a thousand sweet kisses.

I planted a heart
in the sand of separation
but now that I came to find you
with a ring and a cross
become my light and the clear sky of the world
and from our old wine
give me to drink, and you drink
that I shall stay, my love, forever on the bitter shore.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

You were the sun and the dawn
the moon of the night
you were the wish of my mother
the grace of the All Holy One

You left and it cries, the wind, the wave
they are crying, the stars and the night
my mother also cries, in her grave
she is crying, also, the All Holy One

In the fever you were coolness
a candle in the darkness
a star in a great storm
basil in Hades

You left and it cries, the wind, the wave
they are crying, the stars and the night
my mother also cries, in her grave
she is crying, also, the All Holy One

(translation: Eva Johanos
*All Holy One- “Panaghia” refers to the Virgin Mary)

One is the swallow, and the spring exacting
It takes plenty of work for the sun to return
It takes the thousands of dead to work the fields
It takes the living to give their blood, as well

My God you Master Builder, you placed me among the mountains
My God you Master Builder, you’ve enclosed me in the sea!

‘Twas taken by the Magi the body of May
They have it buried in a tomb of the open sea
In a deep well they keep it closed
The darkness grew fragrant and all the abyss

My God You Master Builder, you also lie among the lilac trees
My God You Master Builder, you released the scent of Resurrection

(There’s also another verse of the poem, which was taken out of the song, probably to shorten it:

It was stirred like the seed in the dark womb
The atrocious insect of remembrance, into the earth
And just like the spider, the light is biting
The shores and all the sea have glimmered

my god you master-builder, you’ve wrapped me up in shores
my god you master-builder, you’e established me in the mountains)

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

Tree by tree,
stone by stone they went through the world,
with a pillow of thorns they went through sleep.
They brought life
into their two dry hands like a river.

At each step they won a fathom of sky
that they might give it away.

and when they danced in the square,
in the houses the ceilings trembled
and the glasses on the shelves rang

They brought life
into their two dry hands like a river.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

With a star for a lamp I stepped out into the heavens
into the frost that lay on the pastures along world’s only shore;
where might I find my soul, the four-fold tear-drop!

My girls are grieving for the ages
my boys bear arms but don’t hold sway;
where might I find my soul, the four-fold tear-drop!