(translations)
They gave me water
Music: Nikos Xidakis
Poetry: Antonio Gala
They gave me water
and I drank it.
I don’t know what I felt.
Across the shores of a bitter sea
on an April dawn,
lips of sand and foam;
they gave me water.
Flame against flame,
and a carnation over-clouding a jasmine
on an August noon;
they gave me water, and I drank it.
Whereupon has the eve reclined
to breathe its very last?
When the springs froze up
I don’t know what I felt.
A heart upon the sea
Music: Vangelis Fampas
Lyrics: Klaudia Delmer
It is you, calling me from afar,
immense sky, vastness of the sea.
It is you, casting me towards infinity
with a gentle, faint breeze.
A heart upon the sea
deserts the land for you;
it takes a sea to cry
and reach your depths.
“Pierced by a single sun-beam”*
the seagull is making his way,
intoxicated by wind and love;
he flies away to see behind the blue veil.
A heart upon the sea,
suspended among the stars;
O, how deep it is, the sea
and a ship without sails.
A heart upon the sea
deserts the land for you;
it takes a sea to cry
and reach your depths.
* Quoted from Salvatore Quasimodo’s poem entitled “Ed é subito sera”
Game of shadows
Music: Nikos Xydakis
Lyrics: Klaudia Delmer
I walk towards my destiny
with my head up and my heart beating.
I spread my arms,
submerging into Abyss that never ends.
I embrace darkness and cold,
feeling forlorn.
I look at pain straight in the eyes:
“Take me, I’m yours”.
I must break free from the stars
and find someone like myself;
I must tread my way through the dark
and play the game of shadows.
In this God that tears me apart,
in this God that has no mercy on me
I must believe and bow before His grace;
still, I am doomed to lose the game of shadows.
What if I keep a sense of my body
and wake up unknown to myself.
Everything seems a marvel
and the light lights up my heart.
And the kiss, that very kiss
that someone yearned for, long ago!
I’m looking at love straight in the eyes:
“Take me, I am yours”.
The night fell without you
Music: Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Antonio Gala
The night fell without you
and I was shivering inside,
lost between the cypresses and mighty fortresses.
What a torment to wait for a brand new day to unfold
without your embrace, without your kiss.
Steady and slow
The sun reclined, like a ripe lemon;
and I, myself, alone
drank from his last breath.
The night fell without you
and I was shivering inside,
lost between the cypresses and mighty fortresses.
What an agony to hide my own agony from you,
what a rejoicing if you could understand me.
Steady and slow
the sun reclined, like a ripe lemon;
and I, myself, alone
drank from his last breath.
Ainola
Music: Vangelis Fampas
Lyrics: Klaudia Delmer
How can you navigate through life
and never let your eyes drift back…
I offer shelter to things past
in my own Ainola.
I was striding with the rain and the wind,
and then surrendered myself to the lingering kisses of the sun;
hundreds of thousands of times
I come back to my own Ainola.
Amidst the deep sea and a sigh,
amidst the first kiss and a sin
lies a single place calling upon my dreams again and again:
my own Ainola.
I was striding with the rain and the wind,
and then surrendered myself to the lingering kisses of the sun;
hundreds of thousands of times
I come back to my own Ainola.
He comes and goes
Music: Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Antonio Gala
He comes and goes, his passing warm and tender,
enchanted my whole being.
He comes and goes, leaving me yearning,
and takes away my horizon.
He comes and goes, and for his short absence
I have gathered for him jasmines and fragrant herbs.
How am I to know if he saves me or condemns me?
He comes and goes – still I never bid him farewell,
but I whisper to his soul:
“My dear one, thank you for having come”.
He saves me and off he goes…
From Cordoba to Granada
Music:Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Antonio Gala
From Cordoba to Granada
silence befalls – its pure white colour,
and the water falling upon your slope
like abiding love, in Cordoba and Granada.
From Cordoba to Granada
I shall bring you utter silence – its pure white colour,
and an archangel with his figure
mirrored in the warm waters.
In this perplexing union,
hand in hand, we’ve been lost inside each other;
different yet bound together we’ll persevere
even though our love may reach its extremes.
I’ll offer you my mouth consigned to silence
and wise oblivion – in its depths thirst abides!
I’ll offer you my love
suspended from your own tree like a ripe fruit.
Aurora
Music:Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Michalis Bourboulis
My journeys were like music boxes,
my own routes so very distant;
and I, myself, treading the world on odd, white coaches.
Bewitching voices played in my games
and dear were all my loves
like good, old silken cloth.
O, my precious Aurora, you’ve caused a stir in my mind,
an untamed, blazing fire
that makes wet, lingering kisses dry.
O, my precious Aurora, you are striding naked now
searching for lovers to beguile
like a she-wolf roaming in the snow.
I entered the labyrinth alone at night
holding my unlit lantern,
and made way through, disguised in my solitude.
My bridges, them, have now been shattered
and my old, warbling boxes
sing of my love no more.
The pirates’ burning fever
Music:Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Michalis Bourboulis
The pirates’ burning fever
in the wilderness of the seas
drives them to distraction.
A love they seek, but, “sod it all”,
they chance upon it in Aboukhir,
shipwrecked.
And I, caught in the strings of love at a tender age,
when my destiny had seen
fair travels in my eyes,
how could I know then – poor, mad woman,
that I would be hemmed in the serpents of love
upon a dawn.
Amidst the smothering, foul smoke
I keep searching for that blue of fair skies,
hypnotised.
So, I spend my nights
petrified,
with vulgar vows of love.
Contrapunto
Music:Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Michalis Bourboulis
Blue tiles
and love, stark naked;
and a well bathing you, my precious soul,
in the brightness of light.
I love you for your blazing fire
I love you for your luxurious baths and kisses.
My Oriental World
‘tis you who taught me “why”
passionate rapture is a game
and love is a feast.
My Oriental World
I keep asking you, how
could I dwell in the dark,
I, that was begotten in the light.
Our bodies are but barracks,
reveilles and loud voices;
‘tis something that makes the heart bleed
like a long-drawn Arabian song.
Love is a spider
Music: Vangelis Fampas
Poetry: Michalis Bourboulis
Love is a spider,
‘tis a dark pathway;
it’s destiny running after you,
un unmerciful regime.
Getting out of the tunnel
you keep no memory of darkness.
Entering another world,
you learn how to love.
At breakneck speed
we slip away from pain;
transcending gravity,
we pass onto the corpus of Time.
Time, that sheer mystery,
immense Time
burning like a candlestick
all through the moonlit nights.
Love is a wound,
‘tis a cruel war;
love is elusive, just like miracles,
‘tis a rainy landscape.
But everything, everything flows and changes
and the past is overthrown.
And those who have condemned you
are mighty judges no more.
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