This was
s/s Cyrenia
Niko Kavvadias
Οι Εφτα Νανοι στο s/s CYRENIA (Seven dwarfs on s/s CYRENIA) is a poem by
Niko Kavvadias.
If you read wikipedia's article about Kavvadias
here (it's a small one
, check the link at the bottom you can find some "accurate" translations), you'll see that he used to write with a naval terms-vocabulary.
So here, this is not only a good translator's job, but also an analyst's, a poet's and a sea-man's one...
That's why
I prefer not to translate the song, but I'll give you a small but meaningfull sample of the difficulty and also aura of this poem.
According to naval records Kavvadias was on Cyrenia's board during 1954-56 (Those were also the last years of the ship).
At this time Cyrenia "
Re-entered the migrant service on the Piraeus to Melbourne route".
So it was a ship that transferred Greek emigrants to Australia.
Now lets go to the lyrics part:
Κουφός ο Σάλαχ το κατάστρωμα σαρώνει.(0)
Salach the deaf, is scanning the deck
- Μ' ένα ξυστρι καθάρισέ με απ' τη μοράβια. (1)
- Use a sharpener to clean moravia paint off me (2)
Μα είναι κάτι πιο βαθύ που με λερώνει.
But there's something deeper that spoils me
- "Γιέ μου πού πας;" "Μάνα, θα πάω στα καράβια." (3)
-"My son where are you going?" "Mother, I'm going on board"
(0) Scanning is the EXACT translation and I simply can't imagine the ACTUAL work of Salach at that time
(1) Salach's talking to author
(2) moravia paint = antifouling paint ->
http://www.moraviapaint.com/eng/?page=profil 
(3) Author's saying that the thing that "spoils" him is the mother/son dialogue.
Well he either feels that contributes to a rather painfull procedure - the immigration of young compatriots,
or he is talking about the feeling of pain Greek women use to have about their sons/husbands decision of going on board.
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Please understand that there are songs that we enjoy to listen without actually know the meaning of words.
Most of Mikroutsikos' work on Kavvadias poems is an example of this situation.
And where there are lyrics that provide more ACTUAL and COMMON meaning (for example "
To maxairi"->
translation) to most of us, the song becomes more familiar.
Hope I helped.
Ps.
I suggest you to listen to "Federico Garcia Lorca" ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke1GxUDUSrM&fmt=18
And also to "Salonika" ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-WbsKO0AMU&fmt=18
(You can find it's
translation here, give a
look at the notices)
My favorite Kavvadias/Mikroutsikos' songs.
Help Please.. Οι Εφτα Νανοι στο s/s CYRENIA (7 nanoi sto ss cyrenia)
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