Little Muriom and the kind sea | Stavros Koutrakis

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I translate a short story by the Samian γεωργός (home-scale grower of plants and animals), painter, sculptor, musician and author Stavros Koutrakis (who ‘d rather I don’t list all these qualifications, so please add “amateur” before them). The original was published in 2004 and I posted it here a few days ago, with the author’s permission, moved by the flee of refugees from the Middle East, the deaths of so many innocent in the Aegean sea. Then, earlier today, Paris was rattled in the name of Allah, allegedly to revenge the imperialist crimes in Syria. The military-political-economic aggression of the West and the regressive organizations in the Middle East and elsewhere that murder to “terrorize” are two sides of the same coin. Humanity should trash this coin decisively. 

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Τα παιδιά της τραμουντάνας

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Μυθιστόρημα του Άρη Σκιαδόπουλου. Εκδόσεις Γαβριηλίδης. Αθήνα 2012.

Πασχίζω να θυμηθώ πώς βρέθηκε στα χέρια μου το βιβλίο. Στην ξενιτιά οι αισθήσεις που δημιουργεί ένα αυθεντικό έργο βιώνονται πιο έντονα, ή έτσι μου φαίνεται. Λέει στο τέλος του (6 Μάη 2012): “Μάλλον δεν αντιστάθηκα όσο έπρεπε σ΄αυτά που θα ‘πρεπε.”

Ποιός που συλλογίζεται δεν έχει αναρωτηθεί το ίδιο;

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China

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Following the breath-taking walk on the great wall of China

the strolling through the emperor’s summer palace and in the forbidden city

after watching a night dance on the waters of the Hangzhou west lake

and thinking in the Tsinghua campus by the flowering lotus plants

while eating every day seven new dishes of oriental taste

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