Two Works by Katerina Gogou

Katerina Gogou: "May 25th"

One morning I will open the door

and I will go out in the streets

as I did yesterday.

And I won't be thinking about anything other than

just one piece of the father

and one piece of the sea

-those two pieces they didn't deprive me of-

and the city. The city which they transformed into a rotting corpse.

And our friends that are no more.

One morning I will open the door

straight into the fire

and I will enter as I did yesterday

shouting "fascists!!"

constructing barricades and throwing rocks

with a red banner

held high, shining in the sunbeams.

I will open the door

and it's time to tell you

-not that I am afraid-

but, see, I want to tell you that I didn't make it in time

and that you have to learn

not to be going out in the streets without weapons as I did

-because I didn't make it in time-

because then you will disappear as I disappeared

"like that" "in the void"

cracked into little pieces made

of sea, childhood years

and red banners.

One morning I will open the door

and I will be gone carrying the dream of the revolution

within the infinite loneliness of the paper-made barricades

bearing the label -do not believe them!-

"Provocator".



Translated by G.Chalkiadakis





I want us to talk together in a coffee house
one where the doors are open
where there's no seaonly unemployed men
silence and dust lit by sunlight
- the sunlight in the brandy -
and the dust and cigarettes in our lungs
and let's not take precautions today, my friend,over our health
and don't give advice
about how I'm tossing it back
and how I'm wasting myself
and let the make-up, snot and tears
on my face
run.
Just look calmly
at my nails, my hair and the years
which are dirtyand me
I don't give a damn about all that
They only care about the Party, for Christsake!
why the Party hasn't been fixed all these years
and you a friend. A real friend
just like Kazantzidis sings it
and the brandy's shit
and the contractor hasn't shown
there's a room above the coffee house
for those on the run
I'll let it all spill out at some point
I do that when I'm drunk - just to throw you -
to see you without your underpants, to see what you'll do
but you, you're not like the others
you'll get up and dance a request
...your hands took a birch rod and thrashed me . . .
and in your cupped hands you'll hold my brain
with love and care
it's ready to explode into a thousand pieces. It hurts.
And when
they come to tell you
that this is not
the time
or place
for such things
draw your stiletto and slash.
The Koemtzis brothers were right.

Translated From Greek by G.Chalkiadakis.

All human beings are limbs of each other,
having been created of one essence.

When time affects a limb with pain,
The other limbs cannot at rest remain.

If thou feel not other's misery,
A human being is no name for thee.

Sa'adi - c. 1210-1290

If desires fly by like shadows,
If vows are empty words,
Is it worth it to live in this fog of delusion,
Is it worth it to live if the truth is dead?

Does one need eternity for useless striving,
Does one need eternity for deceptive words?
What is worthy of life lives without doubts,
A higher power knows no bonds.

Knowing one's own higher power,
Why wail on about childish dreams?
Life is just an exploit, and the living truth
Shines like immortality in moldering graves.

If desires fly by like shadows
by Vladimir Solovyov

What I fear most
is becoming "a poet"...
Locking myself in the room
gazing at the sea
and forgetting...
I fear that the stitches over my veins might heal
and, instead of having blur memories about TV news,
I take to scribbling papers and selling "my views"...
I fear that those who stepped over us might accept me
so that they can use me.
I fear that my screams might become a murmur
so that to serve putting my people to sleep.
I fear that I might learn to use meter and rhythm
and thus I will be trapped within them
longing for my verses to become popular songs.
I fear that I might buy binoculars in order to bring closer
the sabotage actions in which I won't be participating.
I fear getting tired - an easy prey for priests and academics -
and so turn into a "sissy"...
They have their ways ...
They can utilize the routine in which you get used to,
they have turned us into dogs:
they see to us being ashamed for not working...
they see to us being proud for being unemployed...
That's how it is.
Keen psychiatrists and lousy policemen
are waiting for us in the corner.
Marx...
I am afraid of him...
My mind walks past him as well...
Those bastards...they are to blame...
I cannot -fuck it- even finish this writing...
Maybe...eh?...maybe some other day...

by Katerina Gogou

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm where each one takes
His chamber in the silent halls of death.
Though go not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps that drapery of his couch
About him, and Lies down to pleasant dreams...

William Cullen Bryant "Thanatopsis"

Soyez Réalistes, Demandez L'Impossible

Be Angry At The Sun-------------

That public men publish falsehood
is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Had been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope
and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people,
those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating.
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies,
the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know.
To lampoon these crude sketches of Ceaser. You
are far
From Dante's feet, but even further from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes
to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.

--------Robinson Jeffers

Excerpt from "Proverbs of Hell" by Sir Blake...

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

Expect poison from the standing water.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of
instruction,

The eagle never lost so much time as when he
submitted to learn of the crow.

Everything possible to be believed is an image of
truth.

Iroha

Though fragrant are the colors,
Yet shall the flowers scatter.
Who in our world
Could forever endure?
Over the mountain of transcendence
Let us today cross,
And there will be no more shallow dreams,
No more drunken illusions.

Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the lonely midnight hours,
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows ye not, ye Heavenly Powers!

--Goethe--

Jabberwocky
by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Reproach to the Gainsayers.

Doctor Kunwrath faciebat
23 Decembris. Anno 1597. octava vespertina.


Spirit Divine, blest be thy state,
That art in Salt incorporate
And in the Worlds true virgin wombe
A pure Quintessence art becomme.
Lord have mercy upon us.

Gods wondrous eternal power,
Man in this world may discover,
Who wth the greate worlds flesh & blood
Clad itselfe for our Eternall good.
Lord have mercy upon us.

Who earst the whole world didst surround
Now in old Chaos seede art found
Soe art becomme a body small
Susteyning all things naturall.
Lord have mercy upon us.

This is the greate Light of Nature
That giving the world a new Lustre
And shining in ye darksome night
To make us true Children of Light
Lord have mercy upon us.

Thou Spirit of God true God art
Yet in the world a stranger wert
Which led us out from Errors place
And made us heyres of Natures grace.
Lord have mercy upon us.

On Earth he was in meane Consort
Us in great mercy to Comfort
And make us rich in true wisdome
That like new borne Babes we becomme.
Lord have mercy upon us.

All this on us good God bestow
Then Lord shall we they greate workes shew
And wisdomes Babes their voyce shall raise
Singing to thy Eternall praise.
Lord have mercy upon us.

Arise with poetry; stand with propriety; Grow with music.
-Confucious-

quatrains from the poet Sarmad...

- 9/
Although a hundred friends have turned mine enemies,
Owing to the friendship of the one, my mind has become contented.
I have accepted Unity and been freed from multiplicity
At last I became of Him and He of me.

- 18/
Sometimes thou are a cypress, sometimes a hyacinth and sometimes a jasmine,
Now a mountain, a wilderness, and at another time a flower-garden.
Now thou are the light of a candle, now the scent of a rose,
Sometimes thou art in a garden, and sometimes in an assembly.

The ocean of his generosity has no shore.
The tongue is powerless to thank,
the heart too bewildered to understand.
Though my sins are many
his compassion is greater
still--I swim in the sea of disobediencebut I do not drown.

Wade in the Water
(Spiritual Song from the Underground Railroad)

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water
God's a-going to trouble the water

See that host all dressed in white
God's a-going to trouble the water
The leader looks like the Israelite
God's a-going to trouble the water

See that band all dressed in red
God's a-going to trouble the water
Looks like the band that Moses led
God's a-going to trouble the water

Look over yonder, what do you see?
God's a-going to trouble the water
The Holy Ghost a-coming on me
God's a-going to trouble the water

If you don't believe I've been redeemed
God's a-going to trouble the water
Just follow me down to the Jordan's stream
God's a-going to trouble the water

Go Down, Moses

(Spiritual Song from the Underground Railroad)

When Israel was in Egypt's land,
Let my people go.
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go.

Go down, Moses,
'Way down in Egypt land.
Tell old Pharaoh:
Let my people go.

“Thus spoke the Lord”, bold Moses said,
Let my people go.
“If not I'll strike your firstborn dead,”
Let my people go.

“No more shall they in bondage toil”,
Let my people go.
“Let them come out with Egypt's spoil”,
Let my people go.

And this is a city
In name but in deed
It is a pack of people
They seek after meed
For officers and all
Do seek their own gain
But for the wealth of the commons
Not one taketh pain.
And hell without order
I may it well call
Where every man if for himself
And no man for all

Robert Crowley

The Sky
by Charles Baudelaire

Where'er he be, on water or on land,
Under pale suns or climes that flames enfold;
One of Christ's own, or of Cythera's band,
Shadowy beggar or Crœsus rich with gold;

Citizen, peasant, student, tramp; whate'er
His little brain may be, alive or dead;
Man knows the fear of mystery everywhere,
And peeps, with trembling glances, overhead.

The heaven above? A strangling cavern wall;
The lighted ceiling of a music-hall
Where every actor treads a bloody soil--

The hermit's hope; the terror of the sot;
The sky: the black lid of the mighty pot
Where the vast human generations boil!

The Rebel Girl (1914-1915) by Joe Hill

There are women of many descriptions
In this queer world, as everyone knows.
Some are living in beautiful mansions,
And are wearing the finest of clothes.
There are blue blooded queens and princesses,
Who have charms made of diamonds and pearl;
But the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl.

That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl!
To the working class she's a precious pearl.
She brings courage, pride and joy
To the fighting Rebel Boy.
We've had girls before, but we need some more
In the Industrial Workers of the World.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.

Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor,
And her dress may not be very fine;
But a heart in her bosom is beating
That is true to her class and her kind.
And the grafters in terror are trembling
When her spite and defiance she'll hurl;
For the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl.

The utility of Spring is the renewal of life.
The utility of Summer is the growth of life.
The utility of Autumn is the harvest of life.
And the utility of Winter is the storage of life.

Lao Tze