Sokrates Malamas

I wanna quit thinking about the same things again and again
as if everything was a lie, ashes and charcoals
I want open windows to let the wind in
to have an empty mind
to have the weather on my side

I want you to stop telling me what you’ve been through
It’s not the end of the world if the glass gets a crack
I want you to come and find me, to sit down and talk
about our passionate feelings
about our ignorant lives

I don’t want you to get sad
on sunday evenings
Without this darkness
the years stay empty

I want you to leave, to save yourself, to stop whining
to forget while on your way who you were and what you look like
That’s how I’ll love you a lot and see you a little
Like a distant woman
who I loved before I left

I don’t want you to get sad
on sunday evenings
Without this darkness
the years stay empty

Δε θέλω να πικραίνεσαι
τις Κυριακές τα βράδια
Χωρίς αυτή τη σκοτεινιά
τα χρόνια μένουν άδεια

In the first year I used to be
a holy child in bed
but in the second I was fooled
into enticing arms

In the third I found myself
at dawn in beds not my own
and in the fourth from my friends
I was taking leave

They filled up the baptismal font
with alcoholic water
and what they gave me for my name
was “Rag to throw away”

For my first lie I had to dig
stone-quarrying my brain
the second I poured like a drink
refreshing and so cool

The third one it felt like in Spring
the first breeze softly blowing
By the fourth when I looked at me
I was myself no more

Of the first loving in my life
I said this is forever
the second one came at the cost
of many kisses less

The third one’s coming brought me joy
its leaving even better
when the fourth comes I’ll have to mind
and not leave on the light

(Translator’s note: this translation is a little “stretched” here and there, because I forced it to fit the melody. If you can sing (which I can’t), you can sing the English words to Malamas’ song.)

Η τρίτη ήρθε με χαρά
διπλή χαρά που φεύγει
στην τέταρτη να θυμηθώ
να σβήσω τη φωτιά.

** Όμορφη πόλη, κάτω απ’ το μαξιλάρι, τράτα, καλημέρα, στις χαραυγές ξεχνιέμαι, Δεκέμβρης του 1903, τον χρόνο να λαβώσω, στα είπα όλα, τρία ρουμπαγιάτ, ανήσυχες μέρες, εγώ με τις ιδέες μου, πιες. **”

The wise ones have told us everything
everything and then some
life tosses for heads or tails
but me, I lose the coin

I watch my friends, my old friends
saying it does not matter
a soul that has committed no sin
never ever gets the blessing

It is dark, my dear, my eyes,
it’s always dark in this universe
one crack we leave
for the light to get through

For colours to enter, voices,
dreams and journeys
for us to steal from the gods
some very precious jewels.

Life is just one swig
one day of the springtime
one breath, one sigh
on the cool breeze.

Good mistress of the ship,
give me a hug, embrace me
even if your kisses
are deadly poison on the lips.

It is dark, my dear, my eyes…

Είναι σκοτάδι μάτια μου…

Vineyards and golden olive groves
You look my Greece as you wish
Fire and wind, at the light of the day.

At once European on the branch
and another an ancient bust
Why, why?

Return and show me your road again
eyes of mine, pieces of mine
like an endless letter which time has erased
with names and colors.

Naked the trees, the branches
and they have flown far
birds and stars, in foreign hands.

That is how it always was you smile at me
children of oblivion we are
and I hear you lost, like being dazed.

Into your sky I want to ascend tonight
To find you
embrace me, let me enter into your darkness
Sorceress, I loved you. (all x2)

Στον ουρανό σου θέλω απόψε ν’ ανεβώ
να σε βρω
αγκάλιασέ με στο σκοτάδι σου να μπω
μάγισσα, σ’ αγάπησα.

I wish to do certain things but i end up doing other
how can i explain it to you
i used to say that years are going by,
i ‘ll get my act together.

But it is completely meaningless
to try and change your character
it’s pointless keeping record of things
it’s pointless forcing yourself into being fair…

Outside the wind is gusting,
though inside me
inside this house
my princess
your glow and the light
are dancing around us
incredible this world
and our character.

I wish to do certain things but i end up doing other
and i got to this point
bad mistakes and passions
turned me to a right person

Crack of dawn on the street
i lay my fishing line
i end up catching myself
and losing my mind

Ξημερώματα στο δρόμο
ρίχνω πετονιά
πιάνω τον εαυτό μου
και χάνω το μυαλό μου.

This evening too I will walk alone
hoping to find the water of forgetfulness – to forget you
and, in dark underground places, I’ll find a sign
with a glass until the panic of dawn

Cigarette without end – the weight of my loneliness –
it’s like a woman coming in tired off the streets
she lets loose her laugh and sits down beside me
she stands the next round and hits me on the shoulder

In a glass with a burning fuse
I am seeing your eyes and crying silently
and my mind, which is muddled again,
is whirls round the noose of your songs

Cigarette without end – the weight of my loneliness –
it’s like a woman coming in tired off the streets
she lets loose her laugh and sits down beside me
she stands the next round and hits me on the shoulder

Τσιγάρο ατέλειωτο βαρύ η μοναξιά μου
μοιάζει γυναίκα κουρασμένη απ’ το δρόμο
ρίχνει το γέλιο της και κάθεται κοντά μου
κερνάει τα επόμενα και με χτυπάει στον ώμο

It’s expensive, the air you spit out
an expensive drink, and you drink it
Pockets with holes and a stylish t-shirt,
the world’s hard to swallow,
the world’s a light breeze.

Love is fury, love’s a stroke
don’t ask me, red-eyes
At 17 you start getting full of yourself
at 17 no-one can catch up with you
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
in a few years you don’t know where you’re going

A grown-up chump, you set up an office
The banknotes smell like pussy
You sing a lullaby to the widening cleft
you know it well, your life is gone
a contract to the passion that ends

Love’s a gallows, love’s a need
don’t ask me, burnt eyes
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
You’re scared and you know where you’re headed

All assholes in the same boat
rotten age and weakness
Time laughs and glows in bloom
kills people on the street and comes out on top
the thread snaps and you wonder
all those years why all this trouble

Love is ashes, love’s a memory
don’t look at me, old eyes
You stumble through the streets, get drunk on pain
In a few years you know you’ll get old

Goodnight jerk, life is fun
it has wit and fire
it’s like a wheel
it rolls over you and takes you with it
only your prints it drags along

Kαληνύχτα μαλάκα η ζωή έχει πλάκα,
έχει γούστο και φλόγα
είναι κάτι σαν ρόδα:
σε πατάει και σε παίρνει,
μόνο ίχνη σου σέρνει.