Demetra Ch. Christodoulou [Greece]

 

Icarus 

Sad, agitated, nearly illiterate,
After high school a waiter luckily,
He wears his obsessive, all-black hoody
And throws himself into the cosmic mystery,
In all this pandemonium of stars.
 
I can hear his confused steps.
The deeper the night, the more they sound like
The crawl of the baby I raised
In so many demon-like flaps,
In such a love panic,
And then, a man already, he turned and saw
What comets see on a blind flight
Springing into chaos.
 
My loneliness, my rage, my stupidity,
I don’t want the verses to pity them tonight
But little by little light up one after the other
The lights of the Saturday city.
His friends to climb the rooftops
Wave at him, whistle,
Tell him “Fly, fly!” in an instance of betting,
“There is a good god, the joyful
Moon nests are sparkling.
Who will not take you in their arms,
Who will ever deny you a place…”
 
(Translation into English: Eleftheria Tsitsa)

 
For a Rare Name
 
It assured her she would not be alone.
Neither while leaning over her wedding cake
Nor of course as alone as she was
The night she began to grow old.
It assured her a dalliance of prospects and occasions
Would blossom all around her,
(Economical) little snow trips,
Tea in the company of ladies, or cinemagoing.
Still, she would be the only one by that name!
The forename of a holy figure, bowed to!
The other ladies would merely stir some milk
Into their tea with a silver teaspoon.
Such promises her profound sadness made her
Every morning when she was crammed in the underground
Among countless women who had
The same cardigans, same kilos, same insurance stamps.
And all of them got off at the same station
On the announcement of the instruction:
“Maria!”
“There” she was told, “every name shines bright,
A call from the star exploding high up.”
She was convinced. She put the noose around her neck
And left in a hurry, to become
Yet another Mary in Heaven.
 
(Translation into English: Eleftheria Tsitsa)
 
 
Noble Sailing
 
Who has the power to enforce a penalty on us
When we lovingly care for our soul?
Mourning has not the impertinence of eternity.
It, too, fades away with a weary sigh.
We can, I say, divest ourselves of the shroud.
It is unseemly on a throbbing body.
There’s always a small boat sailing off the shore
Even when it is a mere memory of it,
So many images piled up in the frenzy,
Such substantial stock of mind.
It may even be sailing away from its tomb
Some small sailing boat,
Some spectral fishing trawler,
It once enchanted the eyes
Navigating through a red sky.
Let us add thereto a certain time of immortality,
Tonight the sea, in her titanic silence,
Epitomises chaos into fellowship.
It breathes like the chest of a baby
Fallen asleep before some tamarisks
While burning out, perhaps the sun
Will erase all kinds of abandonment.
Masterful shall be the seamanship
That sets sail past death.
 
(Translation into English: Eleftheria Tsitsa)
 
 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Demetra Ch. Christodoulou was born in Athens in 1953, studied Law and Philology and worked in public secondary education. She has published seventeen books of poetry, one  of prose, an anthology of translations of ancient Greek lyric poets and a volume of translation of works by Eyripides. Her complete poetic works were recently published by Thraka in a two-volume edition. She haw been awarded in Greece the State Poetry Prize (2008), the Poetry Prize from the literary magazine Anagnostis (2015), the Zan Moreas Poetry Prize (2017), and the Makis Lachanas Poetry Award 2024 of Pan-Thessalian Poetry Festival. Poetry of hers has been translated into different languages.