May 2025 - transpolia

This place of ours is ⋮ sky.

This place of ours is closed, entirely mountains
capped over night and day by a low sky

George Seferis, from the poem “Mythistorema” (a kind of “mythic-history”), part 10 (1935)

Ο τόπος μας είναι κλειστός όλο βουνά
που έχουν σκεπή το χαμηλό ουρανό μέρα και νύχτα

George Seferis was awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Taken from the essay titled “From Space to Place: Tracing Geographies of Coexistence” written by Orestis Andreadakis for the Thessaloniki International Film Festival publication Reflections.

A ballad ⋮ beloved.

a ballad of erotic passion
bursting from a heart on fire
or a deeply charged lament
for the loss of one’s beloved

Georgios Fedros, describing a “manéros” in his academic treatise “On the Smyrnean Amanés” (1881).

ἆσμα ἐκφράζον πάθος
ἐξ ἔρωτος φλεγομένης καρδίας
ἢ βαρεῖαν λύπην
ἐπὶ ἀπωλεία προσφιλοῦς ὄντος

Taken from a text written for the Stella with a Sigma album Up and Away, produced by Redinho and released by Sub Pop in 2022.

The full text can be found in the dubitandum “pangs ⋮ raptures” (see yellow boxes below).

Look now ⋮ and grow tame.

Look now oh just look, 
at the amaranth, all look! 
At that never fading flower, 
how it roots up on the peaks!

Look just how it roots, 
how it roots where none dare tread. 
Takes root where none dare tread, 
in among the stones and scree.

Never, oh no never… 
No never is it watered! 
Oh never is it watered 
nor its tender tips clipped.

Eaten, oh ’tis eaten 
by mild deer that drop down dead. 
Deer eat it and drop dead, 
wild beasts eat it and grow tame.

Lyrics taken from the traditional Soufli Greek folk song titled “Amaranth” (date unknown)

Αχ, για ιδέ καλέ για ιδέ
για ιδέστε τον αμάραντο!
Για ιδέστε τον αμάραντο
σε τι βουνό φυτρώνει καλέ!

Αχ φυτρώ καλέ φυτρώ
φυτρώνει μες στα δύσβατα.
Φυτρώνει μες στα δύσβατα,
στις πέτρες στα λιθάρια καλέ.

Αχ, ποτέ καλέ ποτέ.
Ποτέ του δε ποτίζεται!
Ποτέ του δε ποτίζεται
και δε κορφολογιέται καλέ.

Αχ, τον τρών’ καλέ τον τρών’,
τον τρών’ τα λάφια και ψοφούν.
Τον τρών’ τα λάφια και ψοφούν,
τ’ αγρίμια κι ημερεύουν καλέ.

A choral version of this song is heard in Takis Kanellopoulos’ feature film Glory Sky (1962), orchestrated by Kostas Vogiatzis. This same version also features in The Last Spring (1972) by the same director.

Taken from the essay titled “The Never-fading Cinema of Takis Kanellopoulos” written by Manolis Kranakis for the Thessaloniki International Film Festival publication Reflections.

Down on the ⋮ floor.

Down on the daisy’s little threshing floor, 
honeybees have set to madcap dancing.

Sweat slicks the sun, waters shimmer. 
Soaring stalks of wheat flex the dusky sky.

Yonder in among the golden durra 
girls – tomboys – slumber.

Their sleep smells of blazes. 
In their teeth, the sun thrashes.

Down on the daisy’s little threshing floor.

Odysseus Elytis, from the collection “Sun the First” (1943)

Κάτω στης μαργαρίτας τ’ αλωνάκι,
στήσαν χορό τρελό τα μελισσόπουλα.

Ιδρώνει ο ήλιος, τρέμει το νερό.
Στάχυα ψηλά λυγίζουνε το μελαμψό ουρανό.

Πέρα μέσα στα χρυσά νταριά
κοιμούνται αγοροκόριτσα.

Ο ύπνος τους μυρίζει πυρκαγιά.
Στα δόντια τους ο ήλιος σπαρταράει.

Κάτω στης μαργαρίτας τ’ αλωνάκι.

Odysseas Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1979.

Poem set to music by Yiannis Markopoulos, in a song first performed by Maria Dimitriadi in 1969.

Taken from the screenplay of a feature film in pre-production: Summer Spell by Rinio Dragasaki.