Kornaros's Classic Poem in Longhand by (an 12-year old resident of Crete) Manolis Emmanuel Aligizakis
Greek Canadian Literature Libros Libertad Manolis Aligizakis
Summer Solstice
2
They all see visions
but no one admits to it;
they keep on going believing they are alone.
The huge rose
was always here
next to you, deep in sleep
yours and unknown.
But only now that your lips touched it
in its innermost petals
you felt the dense weight of the dancer
who falls in the river of time—the terrible splash.
Don’t waste the meaning that this
breath of life has given you.
DEVIL WITH A CANDLESTICK
There are, truly, thousands of ways for one to regain
his life
and only one to waste it. The tenants complained
for my oily hair that had covered half of the roof,
they didn’t know how many forgotten people still
existed yet, to be truthful, they weren’t shooting;
what’s the purpose of getting involved with death
trances,
better sit by the window and knit a sock. This often
happened to unfortunate Rachel as she’d step up
on the chair to dust the window she’d suddenly see
her true life; then she’d step down a bit cold on
her shoulders and she’d put her overcoat which
still seemed as empty. The villagers finished hastily
as if in fear and they discovered a choked person
there between the potatoes where they were
digging.
Thus, after we lost everything, mother used to
leave the door open and
Hagia Anna got pregnant although very old,
until at the end you could find most of the dead
among the survivors, old stories to narrate
sitting by the fireplace
after a good supper
and the trap of certainty under the carpet.
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 