A Fogoly-The Prisoner-Petros Spathis

A FOGOLY

My novel “Prisoner” translated into Hungarian by Karoly Csiby just published in Slovakia. Book was published in N. America with the title “Petros Spathis” (name of the main character). Title in Hungarian is ‘A Fogoly’

Το μυθιστόρημά μου “Κρατούμενος” μεταφρασμένο στην ουγγρική γλώσσα από τον Karoly Csiby εκδόθηκε στη Σλοβακία. Το μυθιστόρημα εκδόθηκε στη Β. Αμερική στα αγγλικά με τίτλο “Πέτρος Σπαθής” (όνομα του κεντρικού ήρωα) Τίτλος στην ουγγρική είναι ‘A Fogoly’

UBERMENSCH — ΥΠΕΡΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ

FUNERAL

We buried him, yesterday afternoon, in the freshly dug soil,
a small twig that he was, the poet with his thin gray beard.
His only sin: so much he loved the birds that didn’t come
to his funeral.
The sun went down behind the army barracks where the future
dead slept and the lone hawk, lover of songs, sat on the oak
branch; women lamented for the day’s yellow rapture and after
approving everything the hawk flew away, as if to define
distance. Wind blew over the surface of the lake searching
for the traitor who had run to the opposite shore where
judgement was passed and the ancient cross remained with
no corpse.
Everyone felt joyous, wine and finger food had to do with it
the hawk returned without news and the beggar extended
his hand and softly begged:
“two bits, man, God bless your soul, two bits.’

ΚΗΔΕΙΑ

Χθες το απόγευμα, τον θάψαμε στο φρεσκοσκαμμένο χώμα,
λες να `τανε βλαστάρι ενός δεντρού, το ποιητή με τ’ αραιό
γκρίζο γενάκι. Μόνη του αμαρτία που αγαπούσε πολύ
τα πουλιά κι αυτά ξέχασαν στην κηδεία του να έρθουν.
Ο ήλιος έδυσε πίσω απ’ το στρατόπεδο με τους νεκρούς
της αύριον και το γεράκι, μονιάς της λαγκαδιάς, καθόταν
στης οξιάς κλαδί. Γυναίκες κλάψαν για το κίτρινο συναίσθημα
της μέρας και το γεράκι αφού όλα τα επιδοκίμασε, πέταξε
μακρυά τις αποστάσεις για να καθορίσει, ο αγέρας φύσηξε
πάνω απ’ τη λίμνη, λες κι έψαχνε για τον προδότη που είχε
πάει στην αντιπέρα όχθη, εκεί που κρίνονται οι δίκαιοι
κι ο πανάρχαιος σταυρός έμεινε δίχως κορμί.
Όλοι ένιωσαν ευέλπιστοι απ’ το κρασί και τους μεζέδες,
ξανάρθε το γεράκι δίχως να φέρει νέα κι ο ζητιάνος έτεινε
το χέρι και καλοκάγαθα ψυθίριζε:
‘ελεημοσύνη χριστιανοί, ελεημοσύνη.’

~Υπεράνθρωπος/Ubermensch, Ekstasis Editions, Victoria, BC, 2013

http://www.ekstasiseditions.com

Édouard Schuré

Eduard (Édouard) Schuré (January 21, 1841 in Strasbourg – April 7, 1929 in Paris) was a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, and publicist of esoteric literature.
Biography

Schuré was the son of a doctor in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg, who died when Édouard was fourteen years old. Schuré mastered French as well as German, and was influenced by German and French culture in his formative years. He received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. Schuré called the three most significant of his friendships those with Richard Wagner, Marguerita Albana Mignaty and Rudolf Steiner.[1]
Schuré’s interest and studies led to an extensive knowledge of German literature. The discovery of Wagner’s “music drama” Tristan and Isolde impressed him sufficiently to seek—and obtain—Wagner’s personal acquaintance.
In France, he published his first work Histoire du Lied—a history of the German folk song, which earned him some recognition in the country of his family. With the publication of the essay Richard Wagner et le Drame Musical, he established himself as a major French Wagner expert and advocate of the time.
When the Franco-German war of 1870-71 poisoned the German arts for many French, it would seem that Schuré was not immune from this influence. His nationalism is reflected in his remarks of this time—and later in his life—in a comparison of glorified Celtism (France) and a negatively viewed “Teutonism” (Germany).
On a trip to Italy during this time he met, twenty years his junior, a Greek girl, Marguerita Albana Mignaty, whom he subsequently described as his “muse”, although he himself was married.
After the tide of war had ebbed, Schuré reestablished his relationship with Wagner. In 1873, he met the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; with frequent contact they shared enthusiasm for Wagner. The cultist veneration of Wagner, however, seeded Schuré’s alienation from the composer.
Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric and the occult; his major influence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d’ Olivet. In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered. In 1889, he published, after some smaller works on similar topics, his major work Les Grands Initiés (The Great Initiates).
In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis and The Children of Lucifer). At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher and later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré and Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed and thought of Steiner as an authentic ‘initiate’ in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home and wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, and the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology.[2] Subsequently, Steiner and von Sivers staged Schuré’s esoteric dramas at the following Theosophical Congresses in Berlin and Munich. Schuré’s The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner’s own esoteric dramas.
In 1908 Schuré brought out Le Mystère Chrétien et les Mystères Antiques,[3] a French translation of Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity.[4] With the outbreak of World War I, Schuré’s relationship with Steiner and his wife became strained. Schuré threw in the two secret intentions about Germanic and Pan and stepped out of Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society. Four years after the war, Schuré re-consolidated his friendship with Steiner.
In subsequent years, Schuré published his autobiography.
Esoteric and literary meaning

Schuré’s The Great Initiates is described by some as a masterpiece. In it, he describes the path allegedly followed by some of the ancient philosophers in search of profound esoteric knowledge, often called the “initiation”, as describing the process of becoming a mystic master or spiritual healer.
Those familiar with Rama, Hermes Trismegistus, Socrates, Jesus, Orpheus will find frequent references in Schuré’s work. Schuré pursued the notion that a secret esoteric knowledge was known to them all, that this group were among the pillars of civilization and represented the founders of spiritual and philosophical ways of being as well as in some cases—though contrary to their message—religions. Schuré recognized that the path to a harmonious world was not to be found through a bigoted denial of the value found by other civilizations by their own sages. He wanted people to recognize the value of democracy in spiritual, philosophical, and religious ways. .
Schuré wrote a considerable number of books and plays. His plays enjoyed relative fame in his days in Europe, and some of them were put on stage by Steiner. He also influenced Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.
~Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

ODYSSEY by NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

ODYSSEY A

And when in his wide courtyards Odysseus had cut down
the insolent youths, he hung on high his sated bow
and strode to the warm bath to cleanse his bloodstained body.
Two slaves prepared his bath, but when they saw their lord
they shrieked with terror, for his loins and belly steamed
and thick black blood dripped down from both his murderous palms
their copper jugs rolled clanging on the marble tiles.
The wandering man smiled gently in his horny beard
and with his eyebrows signed the frightened girls to go.

ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ Α

Σαν πια ποθέρισε τους γαύρους νιους μες στις φαρδιές αυλές του,
το καταχόρταστο ανακρέμασε δοξάρι του ο Δυσσέας
και διάβη στο θερμό λουτρό, το μέγα του κορμί να πλύνει.
Δυο δούλες συγκερνούσαν το νερό, μα ως είδαν τον αφέντη
μπήξαν φωνή, γιατι η σγουρή κοιλιά και τα μεριά του αχνίζαν
και μαύρα στάζαν αίματα πηχτά κι από τις δυο του φούχτες
και κύλησαν στις πλάκες οι χαλκές λαγήνες τους βροντώντας.
Ο πολυπλάνητος γελάει πραγά μες στα στριφτά του γένια
και γνέφει παίζοντας τα φρύδια του στις κοπελλιές να φύγουν.
Το χλιο πολληώρα φραίνουνταν νερό κι οι φλέβες του ξαπλώναν
μες το κορμί σαν ποταμοί, και τα νεφρά του δροσερεύαν
κι ο μέγας νους μες στο νερό ξαστέρωνε κι αναπαυόταν.

~ODYSSEY, by NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS, translated by KIMON FRIAR

Nikos Kazantzakis
1883-1957
Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, when the island was still under Ottoman rule. He studied law in Athens (1902-06) before moving to Paris to pursue postgraduate studies in philosophy (1907-09) under Henri Bergson. It was at this time that he developed a strong interest in Nietzsche and seriously took to writing. After returning to Greece, he continued to travel extensively, often as a newspaper correspondent. He was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Social Welfare (1919) and Minister without Portfolio (1945), and served as a literary advisor to UNESCO (1946). Among other distinctions, he was president of the Hellenic Literary Society, received the International Peace Award in Vienna in 1956 and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Kazantzakis regarded himself as a poet and in 1938 completed his magnum opus, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, divided into 24 rhapsodies and consisting of a monumental 33,333 verses. He distinguished himself as a playwright (The Prometheus Trilogy, Kapodistrias, Kouros, Nicephorus Phocas, Constantine Palaeologus, Christopher Columbus, etc), travel writer (Spain, Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Japan-China, England, Russia, Jerusalem and Cyprus) and thinker (The Saviours of God, Symposium). He is, of course, best known for his novels Zorba the Greek (1946), The Greek Passion (1948), Freedom or Death (1950), The Last Temptation of Christ (1951) and his semi-autobiographical Report to Greco (1961). His works have been translated and published in over 50 countries and have been adapted for the theatre, the cinema, radio and television.

CHTHONIAN BODIES, paintings by KEN KIRKBY-Poems by MANOLIS ALIGIZAKIS

HYMNIST

I evoke the Great Spirit
to descend to my essence
ally to my ethos and

I hymn the character of man who
suddenly sprang out of my body

the head of beast to decorate
with roses and carnations
with fragrance the Gates of Heaven

to open and enter barefoot
pure as in his dream
rascal of weather and song

as he was on Earth and
in the hatred of their primeval God
men of the boats who boasted
about their shallow knowledge

let them be satisfied in
their sweet ignorance and

let me dwell in my aloofness
lonely lover of the breeze
ΥΜΝΗΤΗΣ

Το Μεγάλο Πνεύμα επικαλούμαι
στο είναι μου να εισχωρήσει
σύμμαχος του ήθους μου

κι υμνώ το χαρακτήρα του ανθρώπου
που απ’ την ύπαρξή μου ανάβλυσε
την κεφαλή του κτήνους να κοσμίσει

με ρόδα και γαρύφαλλα
και μ’ ευωδία την Πύλη Παραδείσου
ν’ ανοίξει ο άνθρωπος ξυπόλητος να μπει

σαν και στο όνειρό του αγνός
παιγνίδι του καιρού και τραγουδιού
που έζησε πάνω στη Γη

και στο προαιώνειο μίσος του Θεού
φονιάδων που με καράβια ήρθαν
με την επιφανειακή τους γνώση
στην άγνοιά τους ας είναι ευτυχισμένοι

κι εγώ ας παραμείνω απόμακρος
μονιάς της αύρας εραστής

CHTHONIAN BODIES, paintings by Ken Kirkby, Poems by Manolis Aligizakis, Libros Libertad, 2015