Ο Φασουλής φιλόσοφος
Γεώργιος Σουρής (1853–1919), 1888
Athens, 1888: a newspaper poet turns Diogenes, Buddha and his own bad moods into rhyming satire that still lands. Read him for the jokes, stay for the ache underneath. Rhyming satire that moves briskly from joke to joke, with a wry melancholy underneath and a moralist's eye on Athenian society.
Feels like humor, melancholy and nostalgia. About society, morality and time.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy comic verse that pokes at philosophy and daily life, and you are curious about Athenian society in the 1880s. The Greek is nineteenth-century, with older spellings and forms, so it asks more of you than a modern comic poem.
Why read it
Souris turns Diogenes, Buddha and his own bad moods into rhymes that still land; read it for the jokes and the sober ache they leave behind.
Pages from the book
He took his tears to a chemist to find out what they were made of.
Μιὰ μέρα ποὺ δὲν εἴξευρα τί διάβολο νὰ κάνωτὰ δάκρυά μου σὲ βαθὺ ἐστράγγισα ποτῆρικαὶ μιὰ καὶ δυὸ στὸν χημικὸ τὰ πῆγα Χρηστομάνοκαὶ κάνε μου, παρακαλῶ, τοῦ εἶπα, τὸ χατῆρινὰ τἀναλύσῃς καὶ νὰ βρῇς πῶς εἶναι καμωμένα,γιὰ νὰ μὴν κλαίω στὸ ἑξῆς κι’ ἐγὼ εἰς τὰ χαμένα.Κι’ ὁ χημικὸς μ’ ἀπάντησε «αὐτά, ξερὸ κεφάλι,δὲν εἶναι ἄλλο τίποτε παρὰ χλωριούχον κάλι». Prometheus is in chains, and it's the schoolmasters pecking at him.
Ἔκλαψα τὸ μαρτύριον ἐκείνου τοῦ τρελλοῦ,τοῦ Προμηθέως, ποὔφερε στὸν κόσμο τόσαις λύπαις,δάσκαλοι τὸν ἐκύκλωναν παυμένοι πρὸ πολλοῦκι’ ἔτρωγαν τὰ σηκότια του σὰν πεινασμένοι γῦπες.Καὶ τρώγοντάς τα λαίμαργα δὲν ἔπαυαν νὰ λένε:«γιατί νὰ κλέψῃς τοὐρανοῦ τὸ πῦρ, καταραμένε;τί διάβολο σοῦ κάπνισε σοφία νὰ μᾶς δώσῃς;ἂς εἴχαμε νὰ τρώγαμε κι’ ἂς ἔλειπαν ἡ γνώσεις». He had trained himself to be Buddha. Then someone rolled up a sleeve.
Κι’ ἐμπρός μου εἶχαν ἔλθει μιὰ φορὰγυναῖκες πονηραὶ νὰ μὲ τρελλάνουν,ποὺ ἦσαν σὰν τὰ κρύα τὰ νερά,καὶ ἄρχισαν τὰ μάγια νὰ μοῦ κάνουν.Ἐστάθηκαν ὁλόρθαις ἐμπροστά μουκι’ ἐσκόρπιζαν ἀρώματα καὶ μῦρα,κι’ ἐπέμεινα κι’ ἐγὼ μὲ τὰ σωστά μουνὰ δείξω σὰν τὸν Βούδδα χαρακτῆρα.Μὰ μόλις εἶδα κάποιας λίγο πόδικι’ ἡ ἄλλη τὄνα χέρι ξεμανίκωσε,ὁ Βούδδας μοῦ ἐφάνη τότε βῶδικι’ ὁ διάβολος μ’ ἐπῆρε καὶ μ’ ἐσήκωσε. Γεώργιος Σουρής.Souris founded Athens's comic paper Ο Ρωμηός and wrote its rhyming satire for decades; his political verse caricatures of parliament were read aloud in cafés. He died in 1919, still in print.
Books that feel like this
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
Jonathan Swift, 1726
Also humor and society.
More by Γεώργιος Σουρής
Από την εφημερίδα «Ρωμηός»
Γεώργιος Σουρής, 1880
The greatest satirical wit of old Athens — the Romios — skewers kings, bishops and politicians in verse written the morning it was read.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is Ο Φασουλής φιλόσοφος for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy comic verse that pokes at philosophy and daily life, and you are curious about Athenian society in the 1880s. The Greek is nineteenth-century, with older spellings and forms, so it asks more of you than a modern comic poem.
- What is Ο Φασουλής φιλόσοφος like?
- Rhyming satire that moves briskly from joke to joke, with a wry melancholy underneath and a moralist's eye on Athenian society. Feels like humor, melancholy and nostalgia. About society, morality and time.
- What should I read after Ο Φασουλής φιλόσοφος?
- If you liked Ο Φασουλής φιλόσοφος, try Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (Jonathan Swift), Candide (Voltaire) and The Four Million (O. Henry).
A taste of the feed
Five ways to start a war, none of them requiring a reason.
“Sometimes the quarrel between two princes is to decide which of them shall dispossess a third of his dominions, where neither of them pretend to any right. Sometimes one prince quarrels with another for fear the other should quarrel with him. Sometimes a war is entered upon, because the enemy is too strong; and sometimes, because he is too weak. Sometimes our neighbours want the things which we have, or have the things which we want, and we both fight, till they take ours, or give us theirs. It is a very justifiable cause of a war, to invade a country after the people have been wasted by famine, destroyed by pestilence, or embroiled by factions among themselves.
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World · Jonathan Swift
How to describe a massacre as though reviewing a parade.
There was never anything so gallant, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made music such as Hell itself had never heard. The cannons first of all laid flat about six thousand men on each side; the muskets swept away from this best of worlds nine or ten thousand ruffians who infested its surface. The bayonet was also a sufficient reason for the death of several thousands. The whole might amount to thirty thousand souls. Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.
Candide · Voltaire
A church hymn reaches a man who thought he had forgotten everything.
The moon was above, lustrous and serene; vehicles and pedestrians were few; sparrows twittered sleepily in the eaves—for a little while the scene might have been a country churchyard. And the anthem that the organist played cemented Soapy to the iron fence, for he had known it well in the days when his life contained such things as mothers and roses and ambitions and friends and immaculate thoughts and collars.
The Four Million · O. Henry
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed