#kostas karyotakis

[mournfulroses]

Kostas Karyotakis, tr. by Kimon Friar, from Modern Greek Poetry; “I Saw This Night,”

[lillyli-74]

How can you carry on, soul, seeking forgiveness, giving back love for each of your wounds.

~Kostas Karyotakis

[arsanimarum]

Kostas Karyotakis

[ukdamo]

Athens

Kostas Karyotakis

A sweet hour. Athens sprawls like a hetaira offering herself to April. Sensuous scents are in the air, the spirit waits for nothing any more. The silver of the evening's eyelids droops, grows heavy up above the houses. Queenlike the Acropolis puts on the sunset's crimson like a robe. The first star rises with a kiss of light. A zephyr by Ilissus falls in love with quivering laurels, rosy nymphs. A sweet hour of delight and love, when small birds chasing one another raise a wind that beats upon a column of Olympian Zeus...

[eucanthos]

Christy Lee Rogers   (US, 1972)

_

Sirens (Water Fairies), 2021. Siren collection photography

Από τα βράχι’ ανάμεσα πετιέτ’ ενα κεφάλι και βλέμματα ολόγυρα σκορπάει φοβισμένα.  Εγώ, κρυμμένος κάπου κει στο έρημ’ ακρογιάλι, το βλέπω —σαν σε όνειρο— με μάτια λιγωμένα.

Ένα κορμί παρθενικό, γυμνό αργοπροβάλλει κι απλώνεται ηδονικά σε κύματ’ αφρισμένα...

Θεότρελος, ο δύστυχος, βουτιέμαι μες στο κύμα, τα μάτια της τα θεϊκά με φόβο με κοιτάζουν και χάνεται στη θάλασσα… Ήταν νεράιδα… Κρίμα!

Kostas Karyotakis - Κώστας Καρυωτάκης   (GR, 1896 - 1928)

Της θάλασσας νεράιδα

https://www.christyleerogers.com/siren/

https://www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/literature/tools/concordance/browse.html?cnd_id=6&text_id=1116

[slaymate]

I love your AUs <3 I had not heard of the Venetocracy one before but it sounds super intriguing as well! Do you have any recommendations for books/shows/movies that have similar vibes? :) (Also, have you read Matomena Chomata by Dido Sotiriou?)

Similar to the Venetocracy AU? For all it's bad aging, I can't recommend the classic ballad Erotokritos enough. To me it's the pinnacle of chivalric love, and Aretousa's monologue refusing to marry anyone but Erotokritos and describing her nuptials with Death instead is just [chef's kiss]. Has me screaming every time! I also recently enjoyed the heist fantasy novel An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass, the subtle romantic subplot in that Italian Renaissance-inspired world is a whole mood.

I have started to compile a much longer list of what I call OC-adjacent media related to the 1920s AU, but as you said, it's mostly vibes, and some get extremely vague. I'll try and only give examples of content that is available in English translation, but Matomena Homata is one of them, which was translated to Farewell, Anatolia (I haven't gotten through Sotiriou's backlist yet, but so far it's been as lovely as it's been shocking). [tw for genocide, physical and sexual violence, war etc. apply for most of the recommendations]

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: The beginning of this in its entirety magnificent novel is probably the most striking account of the Catastrophe of Smyrna I have read. High-budget TV show when?

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières: Idk why this Frenchman loves writing about Greek history so much, but I'll take it. This novel depicts the peaceful coexistence of cultures in Anatolia before nationalism took hold of Europe.

Little England (2013): Oh my god, my favourite movie... I'm sure the Picknick on Hanging Rock and Frantz girlies out there will understand. Andreas Konstantinou, main Alki hair inspiration, let me caress your nose.

Nyfes (2004): Perhaps more palatable to an anglophone audience (because less indie), and by the same director as the previous recommendation, this movie gives me the OC tingles each time.

Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali: The best of pre-colapse Ottoman Empire and Weimar Republic combined, a lovely bit of classic Turkish fiction.

Poetry by Kostas Karyotakis: Get these vibes.

Titanic (1997): Yes, the Titanic. It's the drama, the class divide, the disaster for me. 5-year old me saw Billy Zane in Celine Dion's MV for "My Heart Will Go On" and thought I can fix him. So I did!

The Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman: WWI and its aftermath as experienced in Smyrna, told from Turkish, Greek and Armenian POVs. Another hard book to get through, read at your own discretion.

The Promise (2016): A historical the Armenian genocide starring Oscar Isaac. The sheer aesthetic of the absinthe-drinking hang-out scene... makes me lose my mind.

I haven't had the time to watch Smyrna, My Beloved and The Red River yet, but they are next on the list.

[lromanus]

In the garden the chrysanthemums were dying like desires when you came. Calmly you laughed, like little white flowers. Silent, I made a sweetest song out of the darkness deep within me and the petals sing it up above you.

—Kostas Karyotakis

[anouri]

so a really awful, weak and quick translation of the poem i told you

I shall die on a melancholic dawn of April, when I see my roses opening timidly in my flower pot, a little life. And they will close my lips and my eyes will close by themselves, silently. I shall die on sorrowful dawn like my life, whose dew, knotted tears will flow painfully on the holy soil that will decorate my feast with a wheel, on the holy ground where my funeral bed will be.

All that I have loved in the years of my life will scatter and disappear away from me, like the summer clouds. Only those who loved me will come to greet me and kiss me pale as the rays of the moon. I will die on the melancholic dawn of April. My shortness of breath will come to tell you and even then, as much love as you have left, will be a dim candlestick – poor is the memory of you in my forgetfully grave.

I havent read many of her poems but she is an amazing poet

also as you read in the article, she had a relationship with Kostas Karyotakis and this is a part of his last letter before his death (you can find it all in english online)

[PS] And to change the tone. I advise those who know how to swim never to attempt suicide by sea. All night tonight, for ten hours, I was drenched in the waves. Mild plenty of water, but every now and then, without realizing it, my mouth would rise to the surface. "Someday, when I get the chance, I will write the impressions of a drowned person."

I can talk about poetry forever or sharing my favourite poems sorry

“i shall die on a sorrowful dawn like my life” excuse me while i process this

ahh that’s all so tragic! thank you for the translation

and pls don’t apologize!! i really love hearing about this stuff < 3

[axlna]

Ballade to the Forgotten Poets of the Ages - Kostas Karyotakis

Detested by both men and gods,

like nobles who have bitterly decayed,

the Verlaines wither; wealth remains

to them, of rich and silvery .

With ‘Les Chatiments’ the Hugos are intoxicated

by their terrible Olympian revenge.

But I shall write a sorrowful

ballade to the forgotten poets.

Though the Poes have lived in misery,

and though the Baudelaires have suffered living deaths,

they ve all been granted Immortality.

Yet no-one now remembers,

and the deepest darkness has completely buried,

every poetaster who produced limp poetry.

But I make as an offering this reverent

ballade to the forgotten poets.

The world’s disdain is heaped on them,

but they pass by, unyielding, pallid,

sacrifices to the tragic fraud that

out there somewhere Glory waits for them,

that wise and merry virgin.

But knowing that they re all due for oblivion,

I weep nostalgically this sorrowful

ballade to the forgotten poets.

And off in some far future epoch:

‘What forgotten poet’ I should like it to be asked

‘has written such a beggarly

ballade to the forgotten poets?’

[melancholicmusings-official-blog]

Our death is needed by the boundless nature all around and is craved by the purple mouths of flowers. If Spring were again to come, it will again leave us, and then we shall not even be shadows of other shadows. -Kostas Karyotakis (1913-1928)

[roussehoe]

sunflowers and poetry for the warm autumn days

[inertescapist]

Θα μας δοθή το χάρισμα και η μοίρα να πάμε να πεθάνουμε μια νύχτα στο πρασινο ακρογιάλι της πατρίδας; Γλυκά θα κοιμηθούμε σαν παιδάκια γλυκά. Κι απάνωθέ μας θε να φεύγουν, στον ουρανό, τ’ αστέρια και τα εγκόσμια.

Κώστας Καρυωτάκης, Ύπνος

[arsanimarum]

Kostas Karyotakis, March Funereal and Vertical

[recovecosyrefrotes]

“… En el cuerpo, en la memoria nos dolemos…”

                                                                                            Kostas Karyotakis

Ph: Inez & Vinoodh, A Rose of Flesh, 2009

[pinkbowastrology]

Moodboard: Astrology - Scorpio Sun & Libra Moon. 

Requested by: Anonymous. 

❝She wears the purple dusk like a gown. Her voice softens my evening awe.❞

[parasoli]

In the garden the chrysanthemums were dying like desires when you came. Calmly you laughed, like little white flowers. Silent, I made a sweetest song out of the darkness deep within me and the petals sing it up above you.