Alkinoos Ioannidis

So the world grew wilder, like a boiling cauldron,
like dripping blood, like clouded sweat.
Now we laugh, now we joke
and in our laughter time seems a bit sweeter.
But when I watch the news rushing at night
I know they have nothing new to say.
I was at the fire and I was the fire,
and I saw the end with wide open eyes.

I saw war’s face and the nation and race,
betrayed from within by the most patriotic,
holding my mother captive with a gun in her mouth,
their children now shining in the Parliament floor.
From under a table [it seems it’s still happening],
with a bowl of grapes while the bombing was on,
I saw a thousand parachutes, stains on the sky
and my father talked to me to keep me from being afraid
“Look how gracefully they fall, gracefully they fall.”

I’ve seen orphan parents, my one grandfather from Smyrna
a refugee in Drama found a Bulgarian bullet
and the other, Cypriot fugitive in black London
cut in half by the Nazis, aged 27.
I’ve seen a half of Lefkosia, a sinking Serbia,
a ghost in Belgrade in an empty hotel,
American bombs falling and me sleeping,
tomorrow they’ll sing at the celebration in the square.
I saw pieces of meat in the rubble of a city,
I saw arms, legs thrown away on the ground.
I saw them running in the street with children on their shoulders
and I was just a tourist with video and a camera.

Here in this ugly city, holding onto need
a shattered people asks for steroid metals and Olympiads
and the country is a funeral home,
I will ask for your forgiveness that I raised you here.
I saw the cops laughing in Omonoia
and throwing tear gas to the firetruck,
at the window, like icons, humans blazed like candles
and the networks turned their lense elsewhere.

I saw the uprooted crossing the line
for a cheap prostitute, a casino or cigars;
our poor beliefs are confused after all,
Solomos wearing Armani and wearing his heart open.

I am not looking for myself to be my land,
I know that if everything was like me the earth would have stayed unborn;
I am not scared by the monster neither even my angel
nor by the end of the world.
I am scared of you,
it is you that still scares me, follower of a team,
dog of a party, thug of an organization,
God’s translator, guru with priest’s robes,
little wind-up soldier, lost little boy scout,
praying and killing,
stuttering hymns of rage.
Your country is fear, you’re only looking for parents,
hating what’s foreign inside you and no, I don’t understand,
I don’t know where I stand and where I am going.

Δεν θέλω ο εαυτός μου να ‘ναι τόπος δικός μου
ξέρω πως όλα αν μου μοιάζαν, θα ‘ταν αγέννητη η γη
δε με τρομάζει το τέρας ούτε κι ο άγγελός μου
ούτε το τέλος του κόσμου.
Με τρομάζεις εσύ.
Με τρομάζεις,ακόμα, οπαδέ της ομάδας
του κόμματος σκύλε, της οργάνωσης μάγκα
διερμηνέα Του Θεού, ρασοφόρε γκουρού
τσολιαδάκι φτιαγμένο, προσκοπάκι χαμένο
προσεύχεσαι και σκοτώνεις
τραυλίζεις ύμνους οργής
Έχεις πατρίδα το φόβο, γυρεύεις να βρεις γονείς
μισείς τον μέσα σου ξένο.
Κι όχι, δεν καταλαβαίνω
δεν ξέρω πού πατώ και πού πηγαίνω.

You leave and go
you are a ship
Ahead you look
your sea, wildfires and ice
But further ahead
always will be standing
your return, which is will bear the storm

You leave, where are you going
and what do you believe in
What are you searching for
What earth wants you, which self are you looking for
Everything is here
and everything always further away from you still is only you.

You leave and go
Where are you returning
to what dry land
Your foreign places are everything that you have
Everything is here
and everything forever
Every journey is a return.

You give birth to the sea
and you build the boat
You are the here and the somewhere else
you are the celebration of the return
and the tear of the leave-taking.

And you yourself are the journey
you are the wave, the island
you are the wind, the sail
and my white kerchief.

You leave, where are you going
where are you traveling to
Open roads
Your borders are where you can stand it
Everything is somewhere else
and everything for a short while
when you don’t know that you yourself are your road.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Φεύγεις, πού πας
πού ταξιδεύεις
Δρόμοι ανοιχτοί
Τα σύνορά σου είναι όπου αντέχεις
Όλα είν αλλού
κι όλα για λίγο
όταν δεν ξέρεις πως ο δρόμος σου είσαι εσύ.

He who hung the sun
On the middle column of the sky
now hangs on the wood
merciful, Lord, of the race.And in the thorny bushes of the desert
a mother cried, “my child.”

With the ancient magic of April
with the kiss of the daemons
an owl came into the house
a crow came into the courtyard
and all the wild beasts of the valley
took the road to Hades.

He will sow summer again
in the wild frozen places of the mind
He who nailed the stars
in the holy covering of the sky
and I and you, and we and the others
will then be born again.

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Θα ξανασπείρει καλοκαίρια
στην άγρια παγωνιά του νου
Αυτός που κάρφωσε τ’ αστέρια
στην άγια σκέπη τ’ ουρανού
κι εγώ κι εσύ, και εμείς κι οι άλλοι
θα γεννηθούμε τότε πάλι.

the sky turns on the lights
nothing will ever be like it was at first
sun rise again

I wake up in the light i open my eyes i’m dead for a while i’m lost for a while
sun rise again

And you are lost with your sleep, with a dream’s colorful swan
Sun, don’t rise

My soul is empty, my room is empty and from my dream i listen clearly
Her sobbing is saying it was just a dream, it was a dream

You will come again when it gets dark
And the dream will rescue the truth again
I’ll be next to you

I only see you there my darling
There you are approaching me and you touch my soul
With your wings

But you leave in the morning, I open my eyes and you die at once
Sun, don’t rise

My soul is empty, my room is empty and from my dream i listen clearly
Her sobbing is saying it was just a dream, it was a dream

Άδεια η ψυχή μου,το δωμάτιο άδειο
κι από τo όνειρό μου ακούω καθάριο
το λυγμό σου να λέει όνειρο ήτανε, όνειρο ήτανε

Στης νύχτας το μετέωρο
τα χέρια σου θ’ αγγίξω
κι όσα δε τόλμησα ποτέ
θα σου τα ψιθυρίσω.

Woke up in my sleep
and heard two voices.
One said forget her
and cry no more.
But the other one was yours
through my sleeping nightmare’s lines.
It cried love sleep again
I’ll be by when you want me…

Countless years
but life is so short.
I’m used in loving you
and you are too
But years seem like a pot
a cheap hotel for just two moments
Somewhere to keep the pain
at nights when I’m all alone.
To count my silences
to remember you, when in pain, saying
I’ll be by when you want me…

The fairytale is over
and life starts form scratch
If only your truth
were as true as a lie
What to do with my life
I’ll drown it in my fairytale
for my soul to be fooled
and believe in you all over again
to believe you when you touch me
at nights when you whisper
when you say

I’ll be by when you want me…

Το παραμύθι τέλειωσε
κι αρχίζει η ζωή.
Αχ να ταν η αλήθεια σου
σαν ψέμα αληθινή.
Τι να την κάνω τη ζωή μου
στο παραμύθι θα τη ρίξω να πνιγεί.
Να παραμυθιαστεί η ψυχή μου,
να σε πιστέψει πάλι από την αρχή.
Να σε πιστεύει όταν μ` αγγίζεις,
τις νύχτες όταν ψιθυρίζεις όταν λες
Θα μαι κοντά σου όταν με θες…