At Kafka's
If you decided to transform yourself, be a space
Give me a chair and a bed
Let me lie down
All those trials
Should come eventually to an end
I met you as a window
You became darkness
I saw you as rain
That, too, is over
The throes of childbirth
Made you a mother
I read your writings
You ate them
As that father did with his children
"What a beautiful day", I had said
I wanted to climb the trees
I felt embarrassed
If you decided to transform yourself, be a space
There is still a sound
Quiet
Waiting to let it sleep
Live slowly
Needless to say
We are all going to yield
This is the last aphorism
Translated to English by Konstantinos Matsoukas
Στου Κάφκα
Αν αποφάσισες να μεταμορφωθείς, γίνε χώρος
Δώσε μου καρέκλα και κρεβάτι
Άσε με να ξαπλώσω
Τόσες δίκες
Να τελειώσουν κάποτε
Σε γνώρισα παράθυρο
Έγινες σκοτάδι
Σε είδα βροχή
Πέρασε κι αυτό
Οι πόνοι της γέννας
Σε κάνανε μητέρα
Διάβασα τα έργα σου
Τα έφαγες
Όπως εκείνος ο πατέρας τα παιδιά του
Να μια όμορφη μέρα, είχα πει
Ήθελα να σκαρφαλώσω στα δέντρα
Ντράπηκα
Αν αποφάσισες να μεταμορφωθείς, γίνε χώρος
Υπάρχει ακόμα ένας ήχος
Ήσυχος
Περιμένει να τον αφήσεις να κοιμηθεί
Ζήσε αργά
Περιττό να το πούμε
Όλοι θα υποκύψουμε
Αυτός είναι ο τελευταίος αφορισμός
Mycenae
At noon in the olive grove
We could hear the heat and the voices
Some
Stained their palms
Gathering the wronged fruit
Rushing to keep up with earth's hunger
Time beat in their stomachs
And they the trees
A golden rain soaked the bent gatherers
Until eventually
The branches were stripped bare
Then
I set to work
Till nightfall
Hanging traps on the denuded trunks
The final hope
For that glance of yours
Translated to English by Konstantinos Matsoukas
Μυκήνες
Το μεσημέρι στον ελαιώνα
Ακούγαμε τη ζέστη και τις φωνές
Κάποιοι
Λέρωναν τις παλάμες τους
Μάζευαν αδικημένους καρπούς
Έτρεχαν να προλάβουν την πείνα της γης
Ο χρόνος χτύπαγε τα στομάχια τους
Και εκείνοι τα δέντρα
Χρυσή βροχή πότιζε τους σκυμμένους συλλέκτες
Ώσπου στο τέλος
Άδειαζαν τα κλαριά
Και τότε έπιανα δουλειά
Εγώ
Μέχρι το βράδυ
Κρεμούσα παγίδες στους γυμνούς κορμούς
Ύστατη ελπίδα
Για εκείνο το βλέμμα σου
Houses
It is a fact
The walls have tumbled
You wouldn't call them houses anymore
Stones piled up
Entanglements
Truths
Slumbers
Someone should clear the streets
Someone who has endured
The one who carried truckloads of desires
On the back of a pleasant Sunday
We used to measure time in smiles
Now bent we're looking on the ground for minutes
The sun's shadow ever willing to highlight
Another finished story
And the clock remaining old
The only way for existence
Is a branch stuck in the dirt
Sucking light
The stones still there
They just might bloom in the coming rain
Or they might not
Probably not
Translation to English by Konstantinos Matsoukas
Σπίτια
Είναι γεγονός
Οι τοίχοι έπεσαν
Σπίτια δεν τα λες πια
Πέτρες στοιβαγμένες
Συμπλέγματα
Αλήθειες
Ύπνοι
Κάποιος να καθαρίσει τους δρόμους
Κάποιος που άντεξε
Αυτός που κουβάλησε τόνους επιθυμίας
Στις πλάτες μιας όμορφης Κυριακής
Κάποτε μετρήσαμε το χρόνο με χαμόγελα
Τώρα σκυμμένοι ζητάμε λεπτά πάνω στο χώμα
Η σκιά του ήλιου πάντα πρόθυμη να δείξει
Άλλη μια τελειωμένη ιστορία
Και το ρολόι παραμένει παλιό
Ο μόνος τρόπος για την ύπαρξη
Ένα κλαδί καρφωμένο στο χώμα
Ρουφά φως
Οι πέτρες ακόμα εκεί
Μπορεί και να ανθίσουν στην επόμενη βροχή
Μπορεί και όχι
Μάλλον όχι
***************************
Maria Koulouri was born in 1975. She lives in Athens, Greece. She works as a speech therapist, psychotherapist, and as an animator at a theatre group of autistic and intellectually challenged adults. She tought poetry at the Hellenic Open University, Department of the Master of Creative Writing. Moreover, she works therapeutically through creative writing sessions with adults and children.
Bare Museum, her first poetry collection, was published in 2013 by Melani Publications. For this collection, she won the First Appearing Poet - Hellenic Writers Company Award. She was also nominated for the National Poetry Prize.
Clocks and other beats, her second poetry collection, was published in 2015 by Melani Publications. For this collection, she won the Athens Academy of Letters and Fine Arts-Lyric Poetry Award.
Ordinary beds, her third poetry collection, was published in 2017, by Melani Publications.
Lits quotidiens, is an anthology of her poems translated in French by Michel Volkovitch and Myrto Gondicas and it was published in France in 2018 by Le miel des anges Publications.
Her one act plays have been presented in the form of a staged reading by the Hellenic Centre of International Theatre Institute. She is also the screenwriter of the short film “Possibly strangers”, directed by George Paterakis, and presented in domestic and international film festivals.
In September 2017, she participated in the International Literary Festival of Athens.
In May 2018, the creations of a group of young visual artists, composed after a workshop organized on the occasion of his book "Ordinary Beds", were exhibited on the international platform "Platforms project 2018" (School of Fine Arts of Athens).
In September 2018, she participated in the international literary festival that took place in Olympos, Turkey.
In June 2019, she took part in the 3rd International Literary Festival INĐIJA PRO POET 2019, Serbia.
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