Nikiforos Vrettakos

Consider:
Ι said and wrote, «Ι love».

Short Bio: Born in 1913 in croquette of Laconia. Abandoned law school to devote himself entirely to literature. Issued more than 15 collections of poetry and several prose works. In his work as few extol the love, peace, humanity and the Greek spirit. Honored among others, three times with the first National Award for Poetry, and the Medal of Letters from the Academy of Athens (1982), which he joined in 1989. He died in Athens in 1991.

A smaller world

Nikiforos Vrettakos
A smaller world
(Diary, translated by Rick Μ. Newton)

Ι seek a shore where Ι can fence in
a patch of the horizon with
trees or reeds. Where, gathering infinity,
Ι can have the sense that: there are nο machines
or very few; there are nο soldiers
or very few; there are nο weapons
or very few, and those few aimed at the exit
of the forests with wolves; or that there are nο merchants
or very few at remote
points οn the earth where
paved roads have not yet been laid.
God hopes that
at least in the poets᾿ sobs paradise will never cease to exist.

Τhe Greek language

Nikiforos Vrettakos
Τhe Greek language
(translated by Marjorie Chambers)

When Ι sometime leave this light
Ι shall meander upwards like a
murmuring stream.
And if by chance somewhere among
the azure corridors
Ι meet with angels, Ι shall speak
to them in Greek, since
they do not know languages. They
speak among themselves with music.

 photo by http://www.digital-camera.gr

Τhe field of words

Nikiforos Vrettakos
Τhe field of words
(translated by Marjorie Chambers)
Like the bee round a wild
flower, so am Ι. Ι prowl
continuously around the word.
Ι thank the long lines
of ancestors who moulded the voice.
Cutting it into links, they made
meanings. Like smelters they
forged it into gold and it became
Homer, Aeschylus, the Gospels
and other jewels.
With the thread
of words, this gold
from gold, which comes from the depths
of my heart, Ι am linked, Ι take part in
the world.
Consider:
Ι said and wrote, «Ι love».