Synitheis Ypoptoi (Usual Suspects)

It is raining and I have been taken
into this embrace
into the ragged clouds, the leaves
the perfume of the rained-drenched earth

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body which thirsts!

It’s raining and in the open yards
the children are dancing
God is drubbing the prayers on the drum
in the hearts, on bare feet

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body that thirsts!

You came, dear rain, and changed
the way and the mind
and like a river swept away my step
and in spite of myself you are taking me away

If I could I’d be drowning like a drop
between your lips, I would.
Dear rain, cover this corner
this body that thirsts!

Ας ήτανε να πνιγώ σαν μια σταγόνα
μέσα στα χείλια σου εγώ
βροχή μου σκέπασε αυτή τη γωνιά
τούτο το σώμα που διψά

Good night. . .

With the broken eyes of a saddened chid
You stand there on the doorsill of the mind
And the memories that I hide deep inside
I don’t know if they are something I have
Or something I have now lost…

Good night
and please love me…

What you remember, they say, lives inside you
Lives and pierces you like a bitter needle
Bitter like the laughter, drunken and crazy
Of some junkie archangel
on the rock of Lykabetus

Good night
and please love me…

What time has it gotten to, who has a light
Speak to me, speak to me, the silence is heavier
Heavier than the lights
Heavier than the smoke
And a ragged person sang his last blues

Good night
and please love me…

(translation Eva Johanos)

Καλή σου νύχτα
και να μ’ αγαπάς…

Like you I have something stuck in my throat
at unrelated moments I burst out in anger
Like you in the parks of Silence
I drag my shadow along

Like you I turn into honey in the light
Inside this plastic world of status quo
And at night
I turn back into pieces and glue them back together again

Unleashed days whistle on my balcony
unleashed days have wedged themselves into my city
They aim for the future, they happen to hit the present
and they have crowded me into an unending hiding place

Like you, in the morning at the market
I’m looking for a cheap pair of wings
They finally sell me some stolen ones
But I insist, anyway

I start gathering speed and take a reading on the weather
in order to entrust my body to the void
and I forget that that sky, as well
they have betrayed and sold

Unleashed days whistle on my balcony
unleashed days have wedged themselves into my city
They aim for the future, they happen to hit the present
and they have crowded me into an unending hiding place

(translation: Eva Johanos)

Μέρες αδέσποτες σφυρίζουν στο μπαλκόνι μου
μέρες αδέσποτες σφηνώθηκαν στην πόλη μου
σημαδεύουνε το μέλλον πετυχαίνουν το παρόν
και με στρίμωξαν σ’ ατέλειωτο κρυφτό