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ΑΚΟΥΣΤΕ ΕΔΩ το ποίημα «Κύριε» σε απαγγελία του Μίλτου Σαχτούρη με μουσική υπόκρουση του Μιχάλη Σιγανίδη και του Θοδωρή Ρέλλου
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STRANGER
Stranger
with your black suit
you knock at my door
and show me these white plates
where have you hidden your gun?
where have you hidden your knife?
you have a red star in your head
and you lisp
you want the money
the money that mixed with blood and vanished
the money that mixed with sleep and vanished
you implore
go
go stranger
in my heart there is a tame bird
if I let it out
its teeth will tear you to pieces
`
*
ONE DAY
Bleary-eyed, the eyelashes of day
a girl hangs over the window like a flower
while around her the birds sing soulfully
a broken wine-glass
with its splinters invisible in the heart
and a paper kite on high like a rebellious dream
emits flames
we gather needles
as in bygone days they gathered flowers
and the largest of the needles
runs through our skull
`
*
THE DESOLATE
Desolate men in the cold
speak to the Virgin
expressionless
leafless
the tree stares at them
ravens have dressed in red
like whores
the church has caved in
from too much rain
the saints were found
running in the streets
`
*
THE CAFÉ
I sat in the café looking through the window
a woman with no arms tried
to hide a telephone in her mouth
the fat red bird that’s always chasing me
flew round me three times
then it stood at the door of the café
and shouted:
You’re naïve, you know nothing, I’ll kill you!
so I took to singing
about the white sugary woman who died with the nuns
everything was so ugly, so horrid
that I started laughing
laughing
laughing
I also saw myself going by the café window
I was extremely sad and thoughtful
`
*
THE GOLD
One day
we shall stop
like a blue carriage
amid the gold
we shan’t count the black horses
we’ll have nothing to add up
we’ll no longer have anything to divide
holding
a stick
we’ll pass through the sun’s black
burning hole
`
*
THE POET
When they find me on the wooden slab of my death
the sky will have turned red from end to end
there will be just an inkling of sea
and a white bird from above in a now
horrendous darkness will recite my songs
`
*
MARIA
Pensive Maria
was taking off her stockings
Out of her body
rose voices of other people
a soldier who spoke like a bird
a sick man who died from sheep pains
and the crying of Maria’s little niece
born these past few days
Maria wept and wept
now Maria laughed
at night she stretched out her arms
with her legs apart
Later her eyes darkened
black black they dimmed
The radio played
Maria wept
Maria wept
the radio played
Then Maria
slowly slowly opened her arms
and began to fly
round and round the room
`
*
THE SCENE
On the table they had placed
a head of clay
they had decorated the walls
with flowers
on the bed they had cut out of paper
two erotic bodies
on the floor roved snakes
and butterflies
a big dog kept guard
in the corner
Strings stretched across the room
from all sides
it wouldn’t be wise for anyone
to pull them
one of the strings drove the bodies
to have sex
Misery outside
scraped the doors
`
*
THE CARNIVAL
Far off in another world this carnival took place
the donkey plodded through the empty streets
where no one breathed
dead children kept rising into the sky
descending for a moment to get the paper kites they had forgotten
snow was falling like glass confetti
bleeding the hearts
a kneeling woman
rolled her eyes as though she were dead
only files of soldiers passed left-right
left-right with frozen teeth
At night the moon came out
a carnival moon
filled with hate
they tied it and threw it knifed
into the sea
Far off in another world this carnival took place
`
*
HE IS NOT OEDIPUS
A boundless sky full of swallows
spacious halls Doric columns
the famished ghosts
sitting in chairs in the corners
crying
the rooms with dead birds
Aegisthus the fishing net Kostas
Kostas the fisherman sore at heart
a room full of multicoloured tulles
waving in an air current
bitter oranges break the windowpanes
and enter
Kostas killed
Orestes killed
Alexis killed
break the chains on the windows
and come in
Kostas Orestes Alexis
others return to the streets from the fête
with lights with flags with trees
they call on Maria to descend
they call on Maria to descend from Heaven
the horses of Achilles fly in the sky
meteors accompany their flight
the sun rolls down from hill to hill
and the moon is a green lantern
filled with pure alcohol
then silence falls night-like on the streets
and the blind man comes out with his walking stick
children follow him on tiptoe
he is not Oedipus
he is Elias from the vegetable market
he plays an exhausting fatal flute
he is dead Elias from the vegetable market
`
*
REGARDING THE BEAST
Don’t go away beast
beast with iron teeth
I’ll build you a wooden house
I’ll give you a pitcher
I’ll also give you a spear
I’ll also give you more blood to play with
I’ll take you to other ports
to see how ships devour their anchors
how masts break in two
and how ensigns are suddenly painted black
I’ll find for you the same girl again
who will tremble tied up at night in the dark
I’ll find for you the broken balcony again
and the canine sky
that held rain in the well
I’ll find for you the same soldiers again
he who was lost some three years ago
with a hole above the eye
and he who knocked on doors at night
with amputated arm
I’ll find for you the rotten apple again
Don’t go away beast
beast with iron teeth
`
*
BEAUTY
He sprinkled ugliness with beauty
he took a guitar
he took to walking along a riverbank
Singing
He lost his voice
the ramping woman stole it
who cut off her head in the red waters
and the poor chap no longer has a voice to sing with
and the river rolls the peaceful head
with its closed eyelids
Singing