Ποιήματα
Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου, 1934
A gentle Greek poet of birds, donkeys and old women at the spindle — short poems that notice small lives and say a quiet, unsentimental goodbye to them.
Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου
1877–1940
Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου writes with the patience of someone who has watched a lot and decided not to shout about it. His poems and his comedies share a plainspoken tenderness for small, overlooked lives, and a dry humor that keeps the tenderness from turning sweet. Start with «Ποιήματα» if you want the quiet voice first, or «Το λαμπρό αμάξι» if you would rather meet him in the city, among clerks and shoemakers and the pull of money and make-believe.
Feels like melancholy, tenderness and nature.
Start with Ποιήματα.
Papantoniou wrote the first Greek children's book of its kind, «Τα ψηλά βουνά» (1918), and designed the famous Evzone uniform.
A prayer that asks for nothing, not even to live again.
Κύριε, σὰν ἦρθεν ἡ βραδιά, σοῦ λέω τὴν προσευχή μου.Ἄλλη ψυχὴ δὲν ἔβλαψα στὸν κόσμο ἀπ᾿ τὴ δική μου.Ἐκεῖνοι ποὺ μὲ πλήγωσαν ἦταν ἀγαπημένοι.Τὴν πίκρα μου τὴ βάσταξα. Μοῦ δίνεις καὶ τὴν ξένη.Μ᾿ ἀπαρνηθῆκαν οἱ χαρές. Δὲν τὶς γυρεύω πίσω.Προσμένω τὰ χειρότερα. Εἶν᾿ ἁμαρτία νὰ ἐλπίσω.Σὰν εὐτυχία τὴν ἀγαπῶ τῆς νύχτας τὴ φοβέρα.Στὴν πόρτα μου ἄλλος δὲν χτυπᾷ κανεὶς ἀπ᾿ τὸν ἀγέρα.Δὲν ἔχω δόξα. Εἶν᾿ ἥσυχα τὰ ἔργα ποὺ ἔχω πράξει.Ἄκουσά τη γλυκιὰ βροχή. Τὴ δύση ἔχω κοιτάξει.Ἔδωκα στὰ παιδιὰ χαρές, σὲ σκύλους λίγο χάδι.Ζευγᾶδες καλησπέρισα ποὺ γύριζαν τὸ βράδυ.Τώρα δὲν ἔχω τίποτα νὰ διώξω ἢ νὰ κρατήσω.Δὲν περιμένω ἀνταμοιβή. Πολύ ῾ναι τέτοια ἐλπίδα. Books by Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου
Το λαμπρό αμάξι
Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου, 1920
A poor clerk is courted by the richest man in Athens, and a shoemaker-poet becomes the neighbourhood's sudden myth. Two comedies of money and imagination, written in the city's own breath.
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