yesterday, on the way

I am glad to be here.

[listen]

on our journey

we meet the sun and the blinding rate
the shadow of the earth inside a wooden vase

υπομονή του δέντρου

Ι speak with the patience of a tree that is climbing
in front of its window of the same age
where the wind has eaten off its shutters
and still keeps pushing it into the open, keeps getting it wet...


Odysseas Elytis (The small mariner -translation by me)

* * *

Μιλώ με την υπομονή του δέντρου που ανεβαίνει
Μπρος απ' το συνομήλικο παράθυρό του
Που τού 'χει φάει ο αέρας τα παντζούρια
Κι όλο το σπρώχνει στ' ανοιχτά κι όλο το βρέχει...


Οδυσσέας Ελύτης (Ο μικρός ναυτίλος)


"Όταν άνοιξα τον Οδηγό μου, κατάλαβα. Μήτε σχεδιαγράμματα μήτε τίποτα. Μόνο λέξεις. Αλλά λέξεις που οδηγούσαν με ακρίβεια σ' αυτό που γύρευα. Έτσι, σιγά - σιγά, φυλλομετρώντας, είδα να σχηματίζεται ο χώρος όπως το δάκρυ από τη συγκίνηση. Κι εγώ μέσα του" (ό.π.:71).

a fragment of a book

However, in this process the currents of life, whether their individual phenomena touch us sympathetically or antipathetically, entirely transcend the sphere for which the judge's attitude is appropriate. Since such forces of life have grown into the roots and into the crown of the whole of the historical life in which we, in our fleeting existence, as a cell, belong only as a part, it is not our task either to accuse or to pardon, but only to understand.

Georg Simmel (The Metropolis and Mental Life)

* * *

Εντούτοις, τα ρεύματα της ζωής, ανεξαρτήτως του εάν τα επιμέρους φαινόμενά τους προκαλούν τη συμπάθεια ή την αντιπάθειά μας, υπερβαίνουν εντελώς τη σφαίρα εκείνη απέναντι στην οποία πρέπει να τηρούμε στάση κριτή. Αφού οι δυνάμεις αυτές της ζωής έχουν φτάσει να αποτελούν τις ρίζες και την κορυφή της όλης ιστορικής ζωής στην οποία εμείς, με τη φευγαλέα μας ύπαρξη, αποτελούμε μόνο ένα τμήμα, δεν αποτελεί έργο μας ούτε να κατηγορούμε ούτε να συγχωρούμε αλλά απλώς [μόνο] να κατανοούμε.

Georg Simmel (Πόλη και Ψυχή, μτφ. Γ. Λυκιαρδόπουλου)

joyous being

This is river Nestos. In the evening summer light.

ανεράιδες

σείομαι, διαμιάς, αεράκι, τρίστρατο, λιόφυτο, ίσκιος, σφιλάδα, ρούφουλο, ανεμοστρούφουλο, σίωμα, θυμώνω, βουλή, λόγγι, ταμπουράς, γέννημα, θέρος, λύνω, στυγερός, σταυρόχορτο, δικριάνι, λιώμα, ευτύς, λιχνίζω, αραποσίτι, λυράρης, σταυροδρόμι, μαυρομάνικος, ολούθε, ξεπλανεύω, τσάκισμα, πλάνεμα, δυσαρέσκεια, άτεχνα, βλάπτω, κράζω, πετεινός, γελώ, θαρρώ, κοντυλιά, παινώ, πανί, ίσιαμε, υφαίνω, λάκκος, κατώι, δροσιά, παλαιικός, πικρομυγδαλιά, ξέπλεγος, ξυφαίνω, μαθητεύω, αφριγκώ [αφουγκράζομαι], μουγκαίνομαι, μολο[γ]ώ, φως φανερό, κουκούλι, κοτάω, ζυγώνω,


Νικόλαος Πολίτης (Παραδόσεις Α΄)

summerful

δροσιά το απόγευμα

λέξεις

φαληρικός, ηλιοφώτιστος, πολυύμνητος, καλύβα, απόκρημνος, απρόσιτος, αναβλύζω, φλέβα, κρήνη, κλεψύδρα, λιόφυτος κάμπος, προστασία, κορφή, αγριόπετρα, ριζιμιό, λιθάρι, αδευτέρωτος, μοναδικός, ενδοξότερος, αλωνάκι, εξουθενωμένος, σημάδι, παμπάλαιο, εγγίζω, ασήκωτος, κυκλώπειος, ανάκτορο, μυκηναϊκός, ακρόπολη, λατρεία, χοή, δαίμονας, αγαθός, οίκημα, τύραννος, πύργος, κατεδαφίζω, προπύλαια, βωμός, εναέτιο, ακμαίος, καμαρώνω, αναρίθμητος, εράσμιος, ιππέας, καλαίσθητος, ανάθημα, ευλαβικός, τεχνίτης, ύπαιθρος χώρος, οικοδομώ, κατακαίω, κοινός, συμφορά, ναυμαχία, θριαμβευτικός, συντριβή, ερείπιο, στάχτη, άκρος, ευλάβεια, συντριμμένος, καθαρίζω, ανέπαφος, μεταπολεμικός, περίφημος, μακρά τείχη, συμμαχία, κεντρομόλος, σφραγίζω, γλύπτης, χωνεύω, παράδοση, ενιαίος, γλώσσα, γενιά, μεγαλεπήβολος, ομοσπονδία, δημοκρατία, ωδείο, περίλαμπρος, δυναμισμός, ταχύτητα, αποπεράτωση, αναλογίζομαι, ασύγκριτος, περίκλειος, περισώζω, ξόανο, αχειροποίητος, ολέθριος, σπαραγμός, ανάπαυλα, ευεργέτης, γυμνάσιο, καταφύγιο, κυκλικός, μονόπτερος, πωρόλιθος, επιδρομή, λησμονιά, τελειωτικός, χτύπημα, μετατροπή, σωτήριος, άνθηση, ερημώνω, λόγιος, θλίψη, κλήρος, κύρης, ανεμπόδιστος, συνθηκολογώ, πρόσκτισμα, ταλαιπωρημένος, γόνιμος, γενέθλια γη, κοιτίδα, μυθολογικός, πλέγμα, άρρηκτα, γενάρχης, υπόσταση, ιστορώ, σύντομη διαγραφή, γηγενής, στοιχειό, χθόνιος, φιδίσιος, μοιρασιά, τρίαινα, αλμυρός, κριτής, βρέφος, σπλάχνα, καλάθι, παραλοϊσμένος,



Μανόλης Ανδρόνικος (Ακρόπολη)

a fragment of a poem

Once it was the colour of saying
soaked my table the uglier side of a hill
with a capsized field where a school sat still
and a black and white patch of girls grew playing:
the gentle seaslides of saying I must undo
[...]
Now my saying shall be my undoing,
and every stone I wind off like a reel.


Dylan Thomas : once it was the colour of saying

I have met some wonderful people here, through these blog ways, people who live far away, who have greatly different ways of everyday life, different vews and interests. I am so happy for that, so grateful. It is not like being a tourist in their countries. We get the chance to talk, to exchange, to keep in contact. We are not friends, but it often gets deeper than most of the everyday typical relations we are likely to contact with people we face in person. Also, we get to choose, watching over an almost everyday renewed post, the ones that we would like to be close to. The truth is that we do not take great risks here, but it is real.

So, thank you Irma, thank you Ritva, thank you Leena, thank you Satunkaa, thank you Viluinen (I just met you today), thank you SouleMama, thank you Jonna, thank you Pia (you are the first person I corresponded with). There are so many others, not very far away. I am hopeful.

as an eagle!

layers of different substance

layers of different substance

which one to choose? where to go? I haven't got my books with me to confirm it, yet I think I hear Eliot's voice pronouncing the question.

tonight, under the purple storm, I yield.

after all

απομεσήμερο στο Πυθαγόρειο της Σάμου


p.s. this is the white colour of the islands of my country.

looking at a different country so close

in an unimportant moment
the quietness arose

to be standing to be hold
yet to be
to stand on whole

if you can go back
you can see yourself in need of land and seed
and you find yourself coloured by the wind
and sand, the tortured cliff.

You share the thought of being a man
through the hand of labor which grows bigger
like a stone.

And the mind goes to the place of birth far ahead.
Prepare for that. You are now in danger.

hands

Σάμος, Ευπαλίνειο Όρυγμα,530π.Χ.

οn the curve


''And for one to fight then for what and whom? ...
And, in other words, all those who do not know (- or do not want to know) how to live in a simple and straight and true way, that's why they do not feel the need for a true and human architectural work...
But, to say for once again all the truth, the way it should be said without fear: - the true architect says whatever he has to say by whatever he builds and by the way he builds it. ..''
Aris Konstantinidis, architect (About architecture, 1983)


'The aqueduct of Eupalinos is an engineering feat of outstanding importance. This was the first time in the history of mankind that anyone had ventured to undertake a project of this magnitude, based solely on theoretical reflection worked out in further detail on the drawing board. In contrast with a normal engineering projecr, in which the progress of the overall design can be checked as each block of stone is laid in place, the engineer in charge of a tunnel is working literally in the dark. Proof that his calculations are correct is only forthcoming after the piercing - that is when the project has been vrought to a successful conclusion.

We do not know what Eupalinos's drawing office was like, nor do we know what kind of pencil he used to note his calculations. We can see, however, that he organised his designs and implemented them like a modern engineer, that he was ready with a solution for every problem that arose and that he had the courage to bring his highly dangerous project to a successful close. The name Eupalinos means a man who easily brings a task to completion. It is therefore entirely appropriate for the engineer of the aqueduct and it is coneivable that he was given this name in later times, precisely because he brought such an exceptionally difficult project to so successful a conclusion.'

Hermann J. Kienast, architect-archaeologist (The Aqueduct of Eupalinos on Samos, 2005, Ministry of Culture, Athens)

i go

i've come so close to you
so close to the belief of you
that i can close my eyes
to recreate you
in every detail

remember