Macedonian Poems

[ΓΝΩΣΙΣ]

Πέταξε κάτω, οργισμένη το φτερό η Ιστορία τη βίβλο έκλεισε, που γράφει εδώ και χρόνια
-Αυτή τη γη τη λεν ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ!!!
-Ποιος βάρβαρος ψελλίζει... Ματσεντόνια!!!
-Στη χώρα αυτή, αιώνες με τη δόξα κατοικώ,
γλώσσα ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ και ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟΥ ύμνοι αντηχούνε
ποιοι είναι αυτοί, που ψεύτρα θέλουνε να βγω;
να 'ρθουν εδώ, πως γράφεται η Ιστορία να τους πούμε.
Το βλέμμα της καχύποπτα στρέφει προς τον Βορρά,
Γέλια της ήρθαν πικραμένα
Κάτι ανθρωπάκια διόρθωναν τα χαρτιά
Που πριν αιώνες τα 'χε αυτή... γραμμένα.
-Πλαστογραφία κύριοι, δεν γίνεται ποτέ στην Ιστορία
-κι όσοι προσπάθησαν, απέτυχαν οικτρώς
-Μία είναι η Ευρώπη και μία η Ασία
-και δεν θα γίνουν δύο, για χατίρι κανενός.
-Δεν γράφεται η Ιστορία, κύριοι... ξανά
-ΜΙΑ φορά τη γράφω, μόνο ΜΙΑ!!!
-Πριν απ' αιώνες το έγραψα και δεν αλλάζει πια
-Τι είναι ο ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ και η ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ.
-Γνώρισα τον ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟ τον ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΑ
-ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ σκεφτόταν κι όχι... σκόρπια
-τις πανοπλίες των Περσών τις έταξε
στον ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝΑ
-και δεν θυμάμαι να τις έστειλε στα... Σκόπια!!

Ηλίας Γ. Σβάρνας

[akritas]

The most noteworthy philhellenic voice of the Balkan Wars was James Elroy Flecker, who had gone to the Levant to serve in the British mission in Smyrna in 1909, then met and married his own “maid of Athens” in 1910. In “Ode to the Glory of Greece: A Fragment,” Flecker is visited by the shades of Byron and Shelley in a dream after the first Greek victories. Shelley, referring to Flecker as the “inheritor,” instructs his successor:“Go thou to Athens, go to Salonica, Go thou to Yannina beside the lake… Cry, ‘The Olympians wake!’ And cry, ‘O Towers of Hellas built anew by rhyme, Star-woven to my Amphionic lyre, Stand you in steel for ever, And from your lofty lanterns sweeping the dim hills and the nocturnal sea Pour out the fire of Hellas, the everlasting fire!’”



(Collected Poems 243)


Byron and Shelley were the Amphions whose verse had begun the rebuilding of Hellas, and another English poet, Flecker, would make new towers arise. Despite, or maybe because of, the fact that Flecker had been to Greece and had married a Greek, he still saw the country through the medium of Romantic philhellenism.



At thE end of the poem Flecker wrote, “if no Pheidias with marble towers / Grace our new Athens” and if modern Greek poets are gentler in tone than Aeschylus:


Yet still victorious Hellas, thou hast heard Those ancient voices thundering to arms



(246)


The victory in the Balkan Wars was not the fulfillment of the philhellenic legacy, as Flecker made clear in another poem, “A Sacred Dialogue (Christmas 1912).” At the opening, Christ says:


Peace and good will the world may sing But we shall talk of war! How fare my armies of the north!




[ In Byron's Shadow: Modern Greece in the English & American Imagination by David Roessel, Oxford University Press, 2003 ]

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

Akritas, thanks for this. This is really interesting stuff. People like you and Perseas, ECT... give real lessons in history. Takis, yours are very informative too when you don't get shitty on people, LOL :lol: . I guess we all mellow out when we get older though.:clap2:

So Akritas, what other stuff did Lord Byron, Flecker and Shelly write about are fair people? I know Byron died in Greece and loved Hellenism (can you believe an Anglo once tried too convince me that Byron hated Greeks? I hope that is nonsense.) I did study some English literature, but not enough of Byron's works, nor of the others. I imagine he led a very eventful life and his writings were amazing. Did he keep a journal of events in Hellas during the expulsion of the Turks in the southern Greek mailand (as we know it wasn't all of Hellas).Facinating stuff. I think that would make a great novel in itself, that is writing on Byron's life. Unfortunately, I am not at a point of my life that my writing is strong enough for that. LOL

[akritas]

First thanks for your kind works as about me, and I think Perseas also

One from the famous work of the Lord Byron is the

The Isles of Greece (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/byron-greece.html)

Maybe this AngloSaxone did not never read this poet. Here some quotes of this

THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,---
Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.

.................................................. ...........................

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
On Suli's rock, and Parga's shore,
Exists the remnant of a line
Such as the Doric mothers bore;
And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,
The Heracleidan blood might own.