Syndic No.42 ~ From Wind and Navigator

From Wind and Navigator

Written by Maria Mistrioti

Translated from the Greek by Lamprini Botsivali 

Narrated by Bill Wolak

     * * * 

 

“So, when we had made fast all the tackling throughout the ship, we sat down and with the wind

and the helms man made straight her course.” 

                                    The Odyssey 

         * * * 

I have not yet abandoned the myths  

I try to write you a few words  

in the way the effort is made to stitch  

the bleeding flesh  

So, I will bring the first word close to the last one 

and I will send you this letter as a bitter kiss  

between our distances  

                *** 

I am writing to you 

With rather simple words  

And I would like to talk with you  

about those  

who travel through enigmas  

through smokes of very bitter seas  

who respond in the nights  

to the crying of mermaids  

and search for  

the other side of things  

          *** 

Night wandering the Cimmerian wind  

furiously beats the closed windows  

So, I would like to talk to you  

about those 

—even the few in number— 

who light the fireplace every evening  

fill again with oil the ancient lamp  

and tie the old dong in front of the gate 

                   *** 

For the navigator  

who struggles in the ways of waves  

who follows reckless routes  

who thinks of the time of return  

what words can I speak with . . . 

My words are wounded by the wave and wind  

I hold with the nails the short limits  

I paint blurred pictures on our stellar distances            

I loved  

This inky strip of sea  

The distant voyages which I imagined  

the young fisherman who I wanted for a strong navigator  

The bustle of the seafront street  

which I heard as a bold talk of the comrades  

And all those of the little escapes  

                   *** 

So, I insist on love  

Which is not the fear  

For the long journeys of dangers  

For the passage from the land  

Of fabulous Cimmerians  

And when the winds stutter the song  

and to the cries thousands of Lestrygonians respond  

I keep the silence in my veins and I go ahead . . . 

 

 

Maria Mistrioti is a Greek poet. She is mainly inspired by the Homer’s Odyssey. She was awarded the HOMER & IANICIUS International and the Polish Ministry  of Culture Prizes. She is an organizer of international poetry festivals in Greece. 

Lamprini Botsivali has studied English literature in the University of Athens in Greece. She has worked as a teacher of English language in her private school in the city of Chalkida on the island of Evia (also known as Euboea).