Could someone translate this? Or should I ask could you translate this, Amethystos?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbt6EZgsATw

Για την Ελλάδα
Στίχοι: Σωκράτης Μάλαμας
Μουσική: Σωκράτης Μάλαμας
Πρώτη εκτέλεση: Σωκράτης Μάλαμας

Αμπέλια και χρυσές ελιές
μοιάζεις Ελλάδα μου όπως θες
φωτιά κι αέρας, στο φως της μέρας.

Τη μια ευρωπαία στο κλαρί,
την άλλη αρχαία προτομή
Γιατί, γιατί;

Γύρνα και δείξε μου τον δρόμο σου ξανά
μάτια μου, κομμάτια μου
σαν γράμμα ατέλειωτο που έσβησε ο καιρός
μ' ονόματα και χρώματα.

Γυμνά τα δέντρα, τα κλαδιά
κι έχουν πετάξει μακριά
πουλιά κι αστέρια, σε ξένα χέρια.

Ετσι ήταν πάντα μου γελάς
παιδιά είμαστε της λησμονιάς
σ' ακούω χαμένος, σαν ζαλισμένος.

Στον ουρανό σου θέλω απόψε ν' ανεβώ
να σε βρω
αγκάλιασέ με στο σκοτάδι σου να μπω
μάγισσα, σ' αγάπησα.

Great song

Για την Ελλάδα
For Greece

Αμπέλια και χρυσές ελιές
Vineyards and gold olives
μοιάζεις Ελλάδα μου όπως θες
my dear Greece, you look exactly as you want to
φωτιά κι αέρας, στο φως της μέρας.
fire and wind, under the daylight.

Τη μια ευρωπαία στο κλαρί,
On one hand you're a european prostitute
την άλλη αρχαία προτομή
on the other, an ancient 'work of art' (literally bust)
Γιατί, γιατί;
why? why?

Γύρνα και δείξε μου τον δρόμο σου ξανά
Come back and show me your way once more
μάτια μου, κομμάτια μου
my darling, part of me*
σαν γράμμα ατέλειωτο που έσβησε ο καιρός
like an unfinished letter that the time's worn out
μ' ονόματα και χρώματα.
full of names and colors.

Γυμνά τα δέντρα, τα κλαδιά
Bare trees and branches
κι έχουν πετάξει μακριά
and they've flown away
πουλιά κι αστέρια, σε ξένα χέρια.
birds and stars, in foreign lands.

Ετσι ήταν πάντα μου γελάς
It's always been this way, you laughing at me
παιδιά είμαστε της λησμονιάς
we're children of oblivion
σ' ακούω χαμένος, σαν ζαλισμένος.
I'm listening to you, confused and dazed.

Στον ουρανό σου θέλω απόψε ν' ανεβώ
I want to climb up to your sky tonight
να σε βρω
and find you
αγκάλιασέ με στο σκοτάδι σου να μπω
embrace me so I can disappear into your darkness
μάγισσα, σ' αγάπησα.
enchantress, I loved you.

*Not sure about this

Well my friend feishtica, you actually succeded in making me feel more miserable than previous.

The song you suggested is actually a sympathetic try of today's Greek musicians,
to praise Greece itself.

It's too depressing to compare these lyrics with the lyrics of Elitis
"Αετόμορφα τα έχει τα ψηλά βουνά
στα ηφαίστεια κλήματα σειρά
και τα σπίτια πιο λευκά
στου γλαυκού το γειτόνεμα! "



Οδυσσέας Ελύτης

And you made me remember of an interview that I found in youtube, lately.
Elitis denied to participate in interviews. So this documentary is pretty rare.

He talked infront of the camera in 1980. And what did he felt that had to say.....

He admitted that he DID NOT want Greece to participate in the EU.
Cause he felt that The one thing that he always faught for, was in danger.
What was that?
"Μια ζωήν ολόκληρη αγωνίστηκα για αυτό που λέμε
Ελληνικότητα και που δεν είναι τίποτα άλλο παρά ένας τρόπος να βλέπεις και να
αισθάνεσαι τα πράγματα."

"For a whole lifetime, I fοught for the thing we call "Hellenic character", which is
nothing more than a district way of how to see and feel"


"... αν συνέχισε κάποιος την αισθαντικότητα την ελληνική και
τη διατήρησε, είναι αποκλειστικά ο λαϊκός μας πολιτισμός. Μόνον που και αυτός στις ημέρες μας κινδυνεύει.
Οι αστοί στην πλειοψηφία τους, βέβαια υπήρξαν και εξαιρέσεις, μιμήθηκαν τους
ευρωπαίους. Δηλαδή την παραποιημένη αίσθηση της Ελληνικότητας και στη
συνέχεια οι ανερχόμενοι από το λαό μιμήθηκαν τους αστούς."

"... if there was something that prevented and continued the thing we are calling
"Greek aesthetics" this one was only our cultural tradition.
But even our cultural tradition is in danger nowadays

Middle class people, the majority of them since there were some exceptions, mimicked Europeans.
In other words they adopted the distorted feeling of "Greek character",
and afterwards rising people of lower classes mimicked them also"

So since he accepted that Greek society changed, and couldn't maintain the
continuation of its' legacy under the western influations, he formed another
strategy.
He thought that it was better to fight the route of history through competiting.
But only after a cultural competition..... a competition distincted by quality and
not quantity

"Γι’ αυτό επιμένω πολύ στο θέμα της Παιδείας. Χρειαζόμαστε
Παιδεία σοβαρή, βαθιά, όχι αυτή την τεχνική που συχνάζει στις ημέρες μας, γιατί
μόνο μ’ αυτή θα μπορέσουμε και να διακριθούμε και να πορευτούμε σ’ ένα
καινούργιο δρόμο αλλά και να διατηρήσουμε τα ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά της
φυσιογνωμίας μας..."

"That's why I strongly insist over the matter of Education. We need a serious,
and deeply rooted Educational System, not this technical driven one that you can see
nowadays, cause only under these sircumstances we will be able to be distinguished,
to walk in a new way and to maintain the district characteristics of our
physiognomy"

It's trully magnificent to read these words 30 years after, and feel that they
are so fresh and so modern.

And it's trully frustrative to realize that the educational system he spoke about,
created lyricists that are writing about their country with the dull words that
"Για την Ελλάδα" is written.

In other words this one was a competition that we FAILED!

Link to documentary -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNIcsiuUdk

Thank you very much for translating the lyrics. So I had come close. I was wondering why does he emphasize that the wind and the fire are blowing / burning in the daylight.
"ευρωπαία στο κλαρί," I translated as Europe's black ship. Is that a possible interpretation too?
As for μίατια μου, κομμάτια μου at first I had written "my love and my pain" and then I corrected it to "my love and a part of me". Another thing I corrected was Στον ουρανό σου θέλω απόψε ν' ανεβώ να σε βρω. At first I wrote to look for you / discover you and then I changed it simply to "come and see you". But may be I wasn't right there.
As for the comparison between the two poems dedicated to Greece, well, in the times Elitis was writing art was much more romantic. We've become more cynical now and our cynicism reflects in our art. I believed this is due to the increased knowledge in our times and respectively to the increased awareness of the contradictions and contrasts of everything in the world and its complexity and relativity. So nowadays when one begins a poem with a line about golden olives, he inevitably gets to the prostitution aspect.
You say the these are dull lyrics but still they are dull love lyrics, almost dull erotic lyrics. I find them very Greek. Let's not forget that you. Greeks, are the nation who invented tragedy.
The concert that made me acquainted with this song to me is another prove that Greek culture is not lost and recycled into some hazy globalized culture. I love this concert and I feel it very Greek, it's eclectic music, but there is something very specific about this music in terms of melodies and rhythms that you won't find in any other part of the world. For example here in Bulgaria the musicians who are trying to make this fusion between our own traditional sound and western influences are very few and they would never attract such a huge crowd.

Originally Posted by Amethystos

Well my friend feishtica, you actually succeded in making me feel more miserable than previous.

The song you suggested is actually a sympathetic try of today's Greek musicians,
to praise Greece itself.

It's too depressing to compare these lyrics with the lyrics of Elitis
"Αετόμορφα τα έχει τα ψηλά βουνά
στα ηφαίστεια κλήματα σειρά
και τα σπίτια πιο λευκά
στου γλαυκού το γειτόνεμα! "



Οδυσσέας Ελύτης

And you made me remember of an interview that I found in youtube, lately.
Elitis denied to participate in interviews. So this documentary is pretty rare.

He talked infront of the camera in 1980. And what did he felt that had to say.....

He admitted that he DID NOT want Greece to participate in the EU.
Cause he felt that The one thing that he always faught for, was in danger.
What was that?
"Μια ζωήν ολόκληρη αγωνίστηκα για αυτό που λέμε
Ελληνικότητα και που δεν είναι τίποτα άλλο παρά ένας τρόπος να βλέπεις και να
αισθάνεσαι τα πράγματα."

"For a whole lifetime, I fοught for the thing we call "Hellenic character", which is
nothing more than a district way of how to see and feel"


"... αν συνέχισε κάποιος την αισθαντικότητα την ελληνική και
τη διατήρησε, είναι αποκλειστικά ο λαϊκός μας πολιτισμός. Μόνον που και αυτός στις ημέρες μας κινδυνεύει.
Οι αστοί στην πλειοψηφία τους, βέβαια υπήρξαν και εξαιρέσεις, μιμήθηκαν τους
ευρωπαίους. Δηλαδή την παραποιημένη αίσθηση της Ελληνικότητας και στη
συνέχεια οι ανερχόμενοι από το λαό μιμήθηκαν τους αστούς."

"... if there was something that prevented and continued the thing we are calling
"Greek aesthetics" this one was only our cultural tradition.
But even our cultural tradition is in danger nowadays

Middle class people, the majority of them since there were some exceptions, mimicked Europeans.
In other words they adopted the distorted feeling of "Greek character",
and afterwards rising people of lower classes mimicked them also"

So since he accepted that Greek society changed, and couldn't maintain the
continuation of its' legacy under the western influations, he formed another
strategy.
He thought that it was better to fight the route of history through competiting.
But only after a cultural competition..... a competition distincted by quality and
not quantity

"Γι’ αυτό επιμένω πολύ στο θέμα της Παιδείας. Χρειαζόμαστε
Παιδεία σοβαρή, βαθιά, όχι αυτή την τεχνική που συχνάζει στις ημέρες μας, γιατί
μόνο μ’ αυτή θα μπορέσουμε και να διακριθούμε και να πορευτούμε σ’ ένα
καινούργιο δρόμο αλλά και να διατηρήσουμε τα ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά της
φυσιογνωμίας μας..."

"That's why I strongly insist over the matter of Education. We need a serious,
and deeply rooted Educational System, not this technical driven one that you can see
nowadays, cause only under these sircumstances we will be able to be distinguished,
to walk in a new way and to maintain the district characteristics of our
physiognomy"

It's trully magnificent to read these words 30 years after, and feel that they
are so fresh and so modern.

And it's trully frustrative to realize that the educational system he spoke about,
created lyricists that are writing about their country with the dull words that
"Για την Ελλάδα" is written.

In other words this one was a competition that we FAILED!

Link to documentary -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNIcsiuUdk

Originally Posted by feishtica

Thank you very much for translating the lyrics.

Not at all

Originally Posted by feishtica

So I had come close. I was wondering why does he emphasize that the wind and the fire are blowing / burning in the daylight.

There's nowhere in the lyrics the word blow or burn, actually there's no verb at all, and I think that the key word is the previous verb look like. Greece, you look like fire and wind under the daylight.

Originally Posted by feishtica

"ευρωπαία στο κλαρί," I translated as Europe's black ship. Is that a possible interpretation too?

Yeah you can also say europe's black sheep, but if you wanna be accurate then it's what I wrote. The lyricist (Malamas in this case) wrote this for a reason, right?

Originally Posted by maria_gr

Not at all


There's nowhere in the lyrics the word blow or burn, actually there's no verb at all, and I think that the key word is the previous verb look like. Greece, you look like fire and wind under the daylight.


Yeah you can also say europe's black sheep, but if you wanna be accurate then it's what I wrote. The lyricist (Malamas in this case) wrote this for a reason, right?

Thank you very much, Maria. By the way, I'm Maria too, maria_bg only. I got confused, I thought it was Amthystos translating, that's why I replied to her remarks about Elitis in the same posting.