Tasos Livaditis – Poems, Volume II

LONG LISTED FOR THE 2023 GRIFFIN POETRY AWARDS

2023 Longlist Announcement

Apples Fall From the Sky

     Here, in brackets, I’d like to inform you that the wretched

men deleted more of my pages; I mean that I always dreamed

of being the owner of a strange secret so that they’d never

forget me or I’d even be a quick narrator of all separations;

      then I chose the most inglorious smile or an undeserving

gesture like one who hides his face in his hands so that he

loves us even more, while auntie Elvira, in our childhood years,

used to read the blessing of travellers at night since we could,

of course, sleep in the other room

     and mother always sat on the edge of the chair as if to make

room for one who sometimes threw a girly apple in her laughter.

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Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume II

SEA FLOOR

The last autumnal sun; the echo of the sea;

sound of water splashing on water. You don’t discern

one from the other. Houses tumble, ships left to rust,

fishermen feel sleepy.

We grow old, we grow old, he whispered and looked

far away to find his voice, though his voice had no

face anymore, nor he; eyelids glued onto the eyes

like limpets. Yet, the sea floor is light-blue and green —

he said — a golden zig-zag line descends, like a ladder

that you climb up.

Then someone says, good evening, to you, so simple

and unintentional and boundless, like resurrection.

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Übermensch, poetry by Manolis Aligizakis

Νεκροθάφτης

     Ήταν ακόμα νωρίς όταν μας υποδέχτηκε ο νεκροθάφτης

κι επειδή ήμασταν πολλοί υποσχέθηκε να μας βαλσαμώσει

έναν-έναν έστω κι αν αυτό έπαιρνε χρόνια και ξέραμε πως

έπρεπε να ξεκινήσει απ’ την αρχή: απ’ τον Αδάμ και την Εύα

και φυσικά το φίδι δίχως τα φαρμακερά του δόντια.

      Ήταν η ώρα που η ζωή αποκτούσε σπουδαιότητα λίγο

πριν παρουσιαστεί η ζήλεια και το αλάτι του κορμιού που

έδενε κόμπους στο νήμα της αλληλεγγύης κι ο Υπεράνθρωπος

συμβούλεψε ν’ αρχίσουμε μ’ ένα τραγούδι προς τιμήν των νεκρών

του Τρωϊκού πολέμου αλλά το φως  στο δρόμο ήταν τόσο έντονο

που οι φωνές μας παράξενα ακούγονταν όταν άνοιξε

την αγκαλιά Του κι αφού φίλησε το μέτωπο του πρώτου νεκρού

είπε: ‘Αυτό το κουφάρι είναι ο Υπεράνθρωπος του μέλλοντος’.

Undertaker

It was still early in the day when the undertaker

received us yet since we’re a large crowd he promised

to embalm us one by one even if this would take years

and we knew he had to start from the very beginning,

with Adam and Eve and of course the serpent without

its poison fangs.

It was time just before jealousy appeared when life

regained its importance and the body’s salt

tied knots on the thread of compassion when

Übermensch advised us to start with a song to honour

the Trojan war heroes but the light in the street

was so bright our voices sounded strange. Then

He opened his arms and after kissing the forehead

of our first dead He said: ‘this corpse will be

the future Übermensch.’

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