Thursday, July 23, 2009

Aporia, or The Wall

No one knew why
He would keep on

Staring at the blank
Space the clock

Used to hang onto.



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Ceremony

Like an Orthodox Christian, in this society
I prepare myself, mangas* friend, for the ceremony.

I shop for tobacco ends and a piece of hashish,
And set out, mangas friend, for the village of Holy Mama.

I go into the church, into the round rooms,
And start puffing as if I were lighting candles.

And the archangel suddenly appears--
He's got high from all the smoke.

He says, "Listen Christian, it's not a sin
To come into the church for your little ceremony."

But suddenly a monk speaks to me, "Get out of here!
It's my turn to have a drag," he says.

Zeϊbekiko, Vassilis Tsitsanis, 1938?

(From Gail Holst's excellent pioneering book, Road to Rembetika: music of a Greek sub-culture, songs of love, sorrow & hashish, Denise Harvey & Company, Athens, 1975. From the same book: "The manges (singular mangas*--the pronunciation of the 'g' is hard in both plural and singular) were men who formed a sub-culture on the fringe of society. Many of them were actually in the underworld. The nearest equivalents in English are probably 'spivs', 'wide-boys' or 'hep-cats'.")

This is the classic rembetiko heard on the video of my previous post; one of the many rembetika that were banned for years, it was finally recorded by Tsitsanis in 1983!


Vazambam's Zeϊbekiko

Monday, July 20, 2009

Muse/Alter Ego

There is no voice but that of the other
Singer of promise, love, good news,
The bending of knees at the altar--
I'll stop at nothing to sacrifice you.

(First published in Sentences, 1976)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Moon on the Meadow

Imagine

The mouse
In the house,

Busy;

The bat
In the sky,

Blind;

The moon
In the heavens,

Blue;

The man
On the ground,

Supine.



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