Σπάνια πετρώματα αφηγούνται την ιστορία της Θεσσαλονίκης

ΕΛΛΑΣ

Έρευνα του αναπληρωτή καθηγητή Γεωλογίας Βασίλη Μέλφου.

Την άγνωστη ιστορία της Θεσσαλονίκης με στοιχεία πολιτισμού, αρχιτεκτονικής και τεχνών που είναι αποτυπωμένα πάνω στα πετρώματα με τα οποία χτίστηκε η πόλη και ανεγέρθηκαν τα μνημεία της, ακτινογραφεί μια ενδιαφέρουσα έρευνα που πραγματοποιεί τα τελευταία χρόνια ο αναπληρωτής καθηγητής Γεωλογίας του ΑΠΘ, Βασίλης Μέλφος.

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Want to Make Friends at Holiday Parties? Plutarch on Why Drinking is Useful

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

Plutarch, Moralia 644e: Table-Talk, On the Usefulness of Drinking for Getting to Know People

“When the Poet Simonides, my Sossios Senecios, saw a stranger at a drinking party sitting there in silence and talking to no one he said “Man, if you are a fool, you are doing something wise; but if you are wise, you are doing a foolish thing.” For, as Heraclitus says, “it is better to hide ignorance” and it is really hard to do this while drinking “which makes even a very wise man sing / and causes him to laugh gently and dance /and then to speak whatever word which was unsaid” [Hom. Od. 14.464-6).

In this, it seems to me, the poet demonstrates the differences between being a little tipsy and drunkenness. For song, merriment, dancing and dancing are coming to those who have drunk moderately. But talking too much and saying what…

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Yannis Ritsos//translated by Manolis Aligizakis

ΥΣΤΕΡ’ ΑΠ’ ΤΗΝ ΠΛΗΜΜΥΡΑ

Κείνες τις μέρες έβρεχε ασταμάτητα. Κατέβαζε πολύ νερό.

Το ποτάμι πλημμύρισε. Δε φαινόταν η γέφυρα.

Κόσμος καθόταν στις όχτες. Περίμεναν. Η βροχή δε σταμάταγε.

Κάποιοι πετούσαν τα βρακιά τους, τα παπούτσια τους, για να

περάσουν το ποτάμι.

Ύστερα μέναν έτσι. Δέν περνούσαν. Κάθονταν στη βροχή γυμνοί

ώσπου νύχτωνε και δεν ξέραμε πια: έμειναν τάχα εκεί; περάσαν

το ποτάμι; πνίγηκαν;

 

Την άλλη μέρα είχε λιακάδα. Το ποτάμι χαμήλωνε.

Ο έρωτας περνοδιάβαινε στο γεφύρι παίζοντας με τα φύλλα

και πια κανένας δε θυμόταν τα κατορθώματα κείνων που πά-

λεψαν με το νερό

ούτε τα κλάματα κείνων που τους χώρισε το ποτάμι

ούτε κείνους που πνίγηκαν στη νύχτα.

 

Ένα παπούτσι αρμένιζε ήσυχα μες στο ποτάμι

σα βάρκα ενός πουλιού μες στα παιχνίδια τού νερού και του ήλιου.

 

AFTER THE FLOOD

 

Those days it rained unceasingly. Torrential rain.

The river flooded. You couldn’t see the bridge.

People stood by the banks. They waited. The rain wouldn’t stop.

Some did away with their underpants and shoes so they

could cross the river.

Then they stayed like that. They didn’t cross. They stayed in the rain

naked until night came and we didn’t know further: did they stay

there? Did they cross? Did they drown?

 

The next day it was sunny. The river had receded.

Eros went back and forth on the bridge playing with the leaves

and no one remembered anymore the deeds of the ones who fought

the water

neither the cries of those who the river separated

nor those who drowned during the night.

 

One shoe sailed calmly on the river

like a boat of a bird amid the games of the water and the sun.

 

~Γιάννη Ρίτσου-ποιήματα/Μετάφραση Μανώλη Αλυγιζάκη

~Yannis Ritsos-Poems/translated by Manolis Aligizakis

www.libroslibertad.com

A Short Analysis of William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’

Interesting Literature

A critical reading of a classic poem

‘A Poison Tree’, one of the most famous poems by William Blake (1757-1827), was first published in Blake’s 1794 volume Songs of Experience. Below we offer some words of analysis on this classic poem.

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears.
Night and morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles.
And with soft deceitful wiles.

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Telesilla: Argive Woman, Warrior Poet

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

From Pausanias,  2.20.8-10

“Beyond the theater is the shrine of Aphrodite. In front of the foundation is a stele on which Telesilla, a poet of lyric, is depicted. Her books are tossed near her feet while she looks at the helmet she holds in her hand as she is about to put it on her head. Telesilla was famous among women and especially honored for her poetry.

But a greater story about her comes from when the Argives were bested by Kleomenes the son of Alexandrides and the Lakedaimonians. Some Argives died during the battle itself and however many fled to the grove of Ares died there too—at first they left the grove under an armistice but they realized they were deceived and were burned with the rest in the grove. As a result, Kleomenes led the Spartans to an Argos bereft of men.

But Telesilla stationed on the wall…

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