Do not become PREDESTINED

Let waves of birds over the rigging of the lemon tree
With the steady white blast of a new way of walking
And then the angels of the wind shall come
in body like swans which are immaculate, soft, unchanging
Among the streamrollers of the emporia and cyclones of the market-gardens
When women's eyes turned to coals
and the chestnut sellers broke their hearts
When the harvest was over and the hopes of the cricket began.

And because of this I would have you, young men,
To go down naked into the rivers
With wine and kisses and leaves in your mouth
To sing of Barbary
as the carpenter follows the track of the wood's grain

As the viper moves out from the gardens of the barley
With her proud eyes furious
And as the strokes of the lightning thresh the young

And do not laugh, do not cry, do not be glad
Do not lace your shoes up wrong as if you were planting a plane tree
Do not become PREDESTINED
Because the golden eagle is not a drawer locked up
It is not the tear of a wild plum
nor the smile of a water-lily
Nor the vest of a dove nor a sultan's mandolin
Nor a silken hat for the head of a whale
It is the sea's hacksaw cutting gulls in pieces
It is the pillow of a carpenter, is the beggar's watch
Is fire in a forge mocking vicar's wives, and singing lilies to sleep
It is the relationship by marriage to the Turks, is a fiesta of Australians
Is a den of thieves in Hungary
Where the hazel trees go secretly to meet in autumn

Nikos Gatsos, Amorgos, Sally Purcell (trad.), Anvil Press Poetry, 1998

Princípio

Their country is tied in their sails
and oars hang on the wind
Shipwrecked sailors lie quiet as dead goats
in winding-sheets of sponges
But the eyes of the seaweed
are turned on the sea
Lest the sound wind bring them home
with new colour on their canvas

Nikos Gatsos, Amorgos, Sally Purcell (trad.), Anvil Press Poetry, 1998

I know you are

I know you are a bare vein under the frightful stare of the wind a deaf spark among the glistening multitude of stars. No one observes you, no one stops to listen to your breathing but you in your heavy pacing through the pride of nature shall come one day to the leaves of the apricot tree shall climb into the bending bodies of the little shrubs and shall roll down from the eyes of the beloved like an adolescent moon. There is an imortal stone once in passing a human angel wrote his name on it and a song no one knows yet not the maddest boys not the wisest nightingales.

(Το ξέρω εἰσαι μιὰφλέβα γυμνὴ κάτω απο τὸφοβερὸβλέμμα του ἀνεμου εἰσαι μιὰσπίθα βουβὴ μέσα στο λαμπερο πληθος των αστρων. Δὲσὲπροσέχει κανεις κανεις δε σταματα ν´ ακούσει την ανάσα σου μὰσυ μὲτὸβαρύ σου περπάτημα μες στὴνἀγέωχη φύση θα φτάσεις μιὰμέρα στὰφύλλα της βερυκοκας θ'ανέβεις στα λυγερὰκορμιὰτων μικρων σπάρτων και θὰκυκλήσεις απὸτὰμάτια μιας αγαπητικιας σαν εφηβικὸφεγγάρι. Υπάρχει μιὰπέτρα αθάνατη ποὺκάποτε περαστικος ἑνας ανθρώπινος ἀγγελος ἐγραψε τ´ονομά του απάνω της κι ἑνα τραφούδι ποὺδεν τὸξέρει ακόμα κανεις οὐτε τὰπιὸτρελα παιδιὰοὐτε τα πιὸσοφὰ τ´ αηδόνια.)*

Nikos Gatsos, Amorgos, Sally Purcell (trad.), Anvil Press Poetry, 1998

*Desculpa a acentuação esquisita, Miguel - pressa.

De Amorgos

My friends perhaps the memory of my forefathers may be a deeper consolation and a more honourable company than a handful of rose-scented water and the intoxication of beauty nothing other than the sleeping rose of the Eurotas. Goodnight then I see crowds of falling stars rocking your dreams but I am holding in my fingers the music for a better day. Travellers from the Indies have more to tell you than the Byzantine chroniclers.

Nikos Gatsos, Amorgos, Sally Purcell (trad.), Anvil Press Poetry, 1998

Nikos Gatsos e Amorgos

Nikos Gatsos profoundly mysterious and magnetic poem Amorgos, named after a greek island he never visited and written during the Nazi occupation, is the single work on which his reputation rests. It is a wonderful incantation on the theme of loss and hope - a unique blend of surrealism, symbolism and folk song - lyrical and erotic, sometimes celebratory, sometimes bitter. It was much admired by the Nobel laureates Odysseus Elytis and George Seferis, and was hugely influential on the post-war generation of Greek poets. However, after its publication in 1943, Gatsos abandoned poetry, and wrote only popular songs, for which he was later renowned.

Eugene Aranitsis, sobre Nikos Gatsos.