Fiction
Austerity Measures
Three Poems translated from the Greek in response to the Crisis
Stripped Bare
by Yannis Ritsos
The stove rusted.
The pipes peel.
The walls crack.
In the painting
a lone tree
still green.
You even sold
your own wristwatch.
Added chicory to the coffee.
A forgotten cigarette
smokes in the ashtray.
Now what –
such vast emptiness,
such austerity,
freedom?
Απογύµνωση
Η σόμπα σκούριασε.
Τα μπουριά ξεφλουδάνε.
Οι τοίχοι ραγίζουν.
Στο κάδρο
ένα δέντρο ολομόναχο
πράσινο ακόμη.
Πούλησες και το ρολογάκι
του χεριού σου.
Νοθέψανε και τον καφέ.
Ενα τσιγάρο ξεχασμένο
καπνίζει στο σταχτοδοχείο.
Λοιπόν,
τόσο μεγάλο κενό,
τόση στέρηση,
η ελευθερία;
From the posthumous collection “Gallery” (Υπερώον) (Kedros, 2013) by the famous leftist poet YIANNIS RITSOS (1909-1990), a prolific writer with over a hundred books to his name who spent many years in prison for his political beliefs.
The Guards
by Danai Soizou
We couldn’t sleep
our dogs howling all night.
We didn’t think for a second
it was their voice
the messengers of death
warning us like vigilant guards
of a break-in
ready to happen in our house.
We stayed awake
in the quiet of our small room
stubbornly, whining
like children treated unjustly
waiting without dinner
to grow up all at once
in one night
and finally receive
the explanation for their unjust punishment
and the world.
Οι φύλακες
Κοιμηθήκαμε δύσκολα εκείνο το βράδυ
με τα σκυλιά μας ν’αλυχτούν όλη τη νύχτα.
Ούτε στιγμή δεν το σκεφτήκαμε πως ήταν
η φωνή τους
αγγελιοφόρος του θανάτου
και πως σαν φύλακες καλοί μας προειδοποιούσαν
για τη διάρρηξη που θα επιχειρούσε στο σπίτι μας.
Μέσα στην ησυχία του μικρού μας δωματίου
ξαγρυπνούσαμε
με το πείσμα και το παράπονο
παιδιών που τ’αδικήσανε και περιμένουν νηστικά
να μεγαλώσουνε πολύ σε μία νύχτα
να λάβουν εξήγηση για την άδικη τιμωρία τους
και τον κόσμο.
DANAI SIOZOU was born in 1987 and raised in Germany. She studied English Literature at the University of Athens. She is one of a vibrant group of young poets that publish with the journals Poiitiki, Teflon and e-poema.
9/11 or Falling Man
by Yiannis Efthymiades
Finally he took his life in his own hands, and his hands became wings, yes his wings
So he could fly in a new sky, with no light, indivisible, hidden from sight
Like when he was small in his dreams and untied his bonds far from the prison cells of
Everyday. He’d enter a lost dominium where he’d find himself years later shocked
By his predicament: both citizen and emperor, obeying and obeyed
Sometimes open to eye-seas, other times to mountains of kisses so exquisite,
Breath by breath. And he’d pass by the shivering center like grapevines trimmed by the wind
The great passion would become a giant cell and inside life would beat like a heart
He’d go in and out undisturbed each morning, sometimes outside his life, sometimes in
27 ή ο άνθρωπος που πέφτει
Πήρε επιτέλους τη ζωή στα χέρια του, και έγιναν τα χέρια του φτερά του, ναι φτερά του
Για να πετάξει σ’ έναν καινούργιο ουρανό, αφώτιστο, αδιαίρετο, καλά κρυμμένο
Όπως μικρός στα όνειρα έξω από τα κελιά της κάθε μέρας του έλυνε τα δεσμά του
Τότε έμπαινε σε μια χαμένη επικράτεια που χρόνια αργότερα θα έβρισκε μπροστά του
Το πιο παράξενο: ήταν πολίτης κι αυτοκράτορας, υποτασσότανε και κυβερνούσε
Πότε ξανοίγονταν σε πέλαγα ματιών, πότε σε όρη όμορφων φιλιών, ανάσα ανάσα
Και διαπερνούσε το κορμί του ρίγος σαν κληματίδα όταν κλυδωνίζεται απ’ τον άνεμο
Το μέγα πάθος γίνονταν τεράστιο κύτταρο και μέσα του χτυπούσε σαν καρδιά η ζωή του
Έμπαινε κι έβγαινε ανενόχλητος κάθε πρωί, πότε έξω απ’ τη ζωή, πότε μες στο κορμί της
From the collection “9/11 or Falling Man” (27 ή ο άνθρωπος που πέφτει) (Mikri Arktos, 2012) by YIANNIS EFTHYMIADES who was born in 1969 in Piraeus. This is his fourth collection. He also translates English and American poetry.
For the Greek Language© by Yiannis Ritsos and KEDROS publishing, Athens (www.kedros.gr); by Danai Siozou (danaesioziou.wordpress.com); and by Yiannis Efthymiades and MIKRI ARKTOS, Athens (www.mikri-arktos.gr).
Contributor
Karen Van DyckKaren Van Dyck teaches and directs Modern Greek Studies in the Classics Department at Columbia University. She is the author of Kassandra and the Censors: Greek Poetry since 1967 (Cornell, 1998) and other articles on Greek and Greek Diaspora literature. Her translations of Greek poetry which have appeared in her edited and co-edited collections: The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets (Wesleyan, 1998), A Century of Greek Poetry (Cosmos, 2004), The Scattered Papers of Penelope: New and Selected Poems by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke (Graywolf, 2009), and The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present (Norton, 2010).
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Han Kang’s Greek Lessons
By Cat WoodsMAY 2023 | Books
Greek Lessons may not leave readers with a greater understanding of the archaic language, but it will, hopefully, imbue us with a greater respect for the many ways we communicate beyond sound and noise, and how complicated and unifying it is to be fallibly human.
Chryssa: Chryssa & New York
By David Charles ShufordJUNE 2023 | ArtSeen
Some 60 years after her breakout solo shows in 1961 at the Betty Parsons Gallery and the Guggenheim Museum, the pioneering artist Chryssa is finally back in the public eye. Showcasing an impressive range of work centered upon light and form, Chryssa & New York at Dia Chelsea is the first museum show in North America in over four decades to focus on the Greek-born artist Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali (1933–2013). Once considered a pivotal figure in the burgeoning dialogue amongst Pop, Minimalist, and Conceptual factions, Chryssa’s stature has suffered in recent decades, her profile fading as others in her milieu have had their reputations burnished to the level of cottage industries.
Chrysanne Stathacos: The Re-turn
By Ann McCoyJUNE 2023 | ArtSeen
Chrysanne Stathacos occupies the position of the Pythia (prophetess at Delphi) in an art world much in need of a connection to the Mysteries. The Mysteries have been the foundation of all great civilizations, and their demise has always signaled a decline—after the Mithraic priests and later the Gothic leader Alaric and Christian monks invaded the shrine of Eleusis, Greece fell from dominance. Stathacos is a unique prophetess, bridging East and West, and comes to us in our time of cultural collapse.
Gabriela Vainsencher: Epic, Heroic, Ordinary
By Christopher T. RichardsAPRIL 2023 | ArtSeen
The latest in a series of recent solo exhibitions featuring contemporary artists who explore not only figural art, but specifically historical—and thoroughly canonized—representation forms showcases Gabriela Vainsencher’s playful ceramic riffs on ancient Greek and Minoan aesthetics. Now on view at Asya Geisberg Gallery, these artworks offer her an unexpected avenue for feminist reflections on motherhood and the maternal body.
