Saturday 10 June 2017

Klitos Kyrou, The Night Has Its Own Cries; Poets of Salonika; Kleitos Kirou (Κλείτος Κύρου, 1921- 2006)



Klitos Kyrou, a poetry reading, British Council, Thessaloniki, December 1983



From "The Night Has Its Own Cries":


"The night has many cries has cries of its own
Innumerable cries love comes more often
At night death comes even more often
At night different dreams come and help you escape...
The cries of night choke you drive you mad..."

Translated excerpts, Kimon Friar


The  Chasm (The Gulf):



"He stammered a difficult language
The house of commerce was not suitable
As a loudspeaker the corridors impenetrable
Crammed full of banknotes and bills of lading
There was no place where he could stand
He preferred the language of poets...

Now his unburdened voice
Dances from mouth to mouth
Jumps from mountain to planet"

From "The Gulf", translated by Kimon Friar, Commentaries, April 1968


Thirteen Poets of Salonika, The Charioteer, No. 10, 1968, Selections and Translations, Kimon Friar (pdf) - Klitos Kyrou translations pages 47-49

See also:


Pella Publishing Company, 1977


"I behave like the slain English poets I used to read in books

And think of those who fled from us taciturn and tactful

Some perished in shipwrecks some were mowed down by 

sibyllene diseases some were foully murdered

We are living in the kingdom of the diaspora"


from When the Sounds of the Drums were Heard in the Streets,

translated by Nikos Spanias











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