2 poems by Liana Sakelliou Translated by Don Schofield

Greta Garbo at Kyveleia

…………………………….My family was poor. I started working at 14, in a beauty 

…………………………….parlor. Then fate came along in the guise of director 

…………………………….Mauritz Stiller.

…………………………….(From an interview with Vasilis Koutouzis)

…………………………….For Georgos and Katerina Antoniou

We didn’t know her, 

but the Athenian holiday-makers

kept turning to look at her.

In a pastry-shop on the waterfront

she was the only blonde.

I liked the huskiness of her voice,

how she tittered when she laughed,

putting a hand over her lips,

and the way, while enjoying her sweet,

she stretched her calves and straightened her skirt.

We were teenage boys in the boondocks,

savoring a sweet and watching her.

I decided, then and there:

I’d marry a blonde who smokes

and has arched eyebrows,

and become a hairstylist. 

In my own salon,

above the mirror, 

I’d hang a portrait of her.

Ἡ Γκρέτα Γκάρμπο στὰ Κυβέλεια

…………………………….Τοῦ Γιώργου καὶ τῆς Κατερίνας Ἀντωνίου

…………………………….Ἡ οἰκογένειά μου ἦταν φτωχή.

…………………………….Ἄρχισα νὰ ἐργάζομαι ἀπὸ 14 χρόνων σὲ κομμωτήριο.

…………………………….Ὥσπου ἦρθε ἡ μοίρα  στὸ πρόσωπο  τοῦ σκηνοθέτη Μωρὶς Στίλερ.

…………………………….(Συνέντευξη τῆς Γκρέτα Γκάρμπο στὸν Βασίλη Π. Κουτουζῆ)

Ἐμεῖς δὲν τήνε ξέραμε,

οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι παραθεριστὲς ὅμως

γυρίζανε καὶ τὴν κοιτάζανε.

Στὸ ζαχαροπλαστεῖο τῆς προκυμαίας

ἦταν ἡ μόνη ξανθιά.

Μοῦ ἄρεσε ἡ βραχνάδα στὴ φωνή της·

γελοῦσε μὲ τὸν ἴδιο πνιχτὸ τρόπο

βάζοντας τὸ χέρι στὰ χείλη.

Ἅπλωνε τὶς γάμπες, ἴσιωνε τὶς φοῦστες 

καὶ ἀπολάμβανε τὸ γλυκό.

Ἀγόρια στὴν ἐφηβεία ἤμασταν,

στὴν ἐπαρχία ἤμασταν.

Ρουφούσαμε τὸ σιρόπι

καὶ τὴν κοιτάζαμε.

Τὸ ἀποφάσισα τότε.

Θὰ παντρευόμουν ξανθιὰ 

μὲ φρύδια τοξωτὰ καὶ νὰ καπνίζει.

Θὰ γινόμουν κομμωτὴς καὶ 

πάνω ἀπ’ τὸν καθρέφτη τοῦ μαγαζιοῦ μου

θὰ κρεμοῦσα τὸ σκίτσο της.

The Conquest, July 21, 1969

After the moon-landing, I thought I could walk on water

and balance myself like Armstrong.

With an expression of maximum intensity,

Aunt Voula fixed loukoumades in the kitchen,

all of us, sweet and ecstatic, shouting, “Yippee!”

looking first at the moon, then at the black & white image

on TV—it too 

had scales and grey holes at dusk.

“Ah, those Americans,” she said, 

“First Peyton Place, then the moon!”

As for me, I didn’t know 

where I wanted to travel first, 

to the moon 

or to America.

Ἡ Κατάκτηση, 21 Ἰουλίου 1969

Μετὰ τὴ σελήνη πίστευα ὅτι θὰ περπατοῦσα πάνω στὸ νερὸ 

καὶ θὰ ἰσορροποῦσα ὅπως ὁ Ἄρμστρονγκ.

Μὲ ἔκφραση μεγίστης ἔντασης

ἡ θεία Βούλα ἔφτιαξε λουκουμάδες στὴν κουζίνα 

καὶ ὅλοι μαζὶ γλυκαμένοι κι ἐκστατικοὶ φωνάζαμε Ζήτω! 

κοιτώντας μιὰ τὸ φεγγάρι καὶ μιὰ τὴν ἀσπρόμαυρη ἐκδοχή. 

Ὥστε εἶχε κι αὐτὸ γκρίζες τρύπες καὶ φολίδες τὸ σούρουπο. 

Ἂχ αὐτοὶ οἱ Ἀμερικάνοι! Πρῶτα τὸ Peyton Place κι ὕστερα τὸ φεγγάρι! 

Δὲν ἤξερα ποῦ ἤθελα νὰ πρωτοταξιδέψω: στὸ φεγγάρι ἢ στὴν Ἀμερική; 

Liana Sakelliou has published 18 books of poetry, criticism and translation in Greece, the USA and France.  Her poems have been translated into several languages and have been published in a number of anthologies and international journals.  She teaches American literature, specializing in contemporary poetry, and creative writing in the Department of English Language and Literature of the University of Athens.  The recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Department of Hellenic Studies of Princeton University, the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the British Council, Ms. Sakelliou is a member of the Greek Writers’ Association Coordinating Committee and a short story judge in the European Union Prize for Literature.

Born in Nevada and raised in California, Don Schofield has been living and writing in Greece since 1980.  A citizen of both his homeland and his adopted country, he has published several poetry collections, the most recent of which are The Flow of Wonder (2018) and In Lands Imagination Favors (2014), as well as an anthology of American poets in Greece and translations of contemporary Greek poets. He is a recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Award (US), the John D. Criticos Prize (UK) and a Stanley J. Seeger Writer-in-Residence fellowship at Princeton University. His first book, Approximately Paradise, was a finalist for the Walt Whitman Award, and his translations have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Greek National Translation Award. Currently he lives in both Athens and Thessaloniki.

23 December 2021