The Universe

Written by Konstantinos Bouras

Translated from the Greek by Eleni Karapa

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Greece

We are all a tiny pebble

In the world’s mosaic

No one magnificent, no one great

Yet important

For the inner miracle

For the outer image

That transforms

Reality

Into something accessible, sustainable

And tangible . . .

As long as we realize

Humility

With modesty

And awareness of The ridiculous

That resides in every human pettiness.

The existence, yes, the existence is

Something different, much wider, much stronger

Than the flimsy soap bubbles

Of our flesh.

We are pustules

On the body of the universe.

Voracious cockroaches,

Greedy ants,

Arrogant cicadas . . .

But some of us

Become blackbirds

That sing like nightingales

Imitating the Harmony of the Universe

Making up melodies

In the perpetuity

Of this very moment

Which might  AS WELL be a century

As long as you manage to forget yourself

For a little while

To subdue your ego,

To leave the shirt

Of your personality

On the hanger, in the closet

Of the house

And let yourself roam around

Naked, free and innocent . . .

This is the only way to add some

infinitesimal

Weight to our poems and to our art

The lowborn one . . .

 

Konstantinos Bouras was born in Kalamata, a town in the Peloponnese region of Greece in 1962. He has studied mechanical engineering at the National Metsovio Institute of Technology in Athens and has been working in this field since 1985. He has also graduated with honors in theatrical studies in the School of Philosophy in Athens University. His post-graduate studies were done in theatre (D.E.A.) at Paris III (La nouvelle Sorbonne) in Paris. In 2019, he was awarded his PhD (with honors) in Literature, Foreign Languages, Translation, and Theatrology from the Ionion University in Corfu. Currently, he is a visiting Professor at the University of Athens. Forty volumes of his poetic works have been published as well one novel.

Eleni Karapa is an eminent, self-employed architect living in Athens, Greece.  She received a Master of  Architecture degree in 1996 from Ball State University.  She also translates from Greek into English as well as from English into Greek.