Kretischer Ruhrgebietsbayer (Cretan West South German): Ich verstehe nichts mehr in diesem tiefblauen Meer!!! (It's all greek to me in this deep blue sea!!!)
This is a post from one of Joan’s fantastic Sfakian reports in the Sfakia-Forum (https://www.sfakia-crete-forum.com/phpBB3/index.php): „Our next destination was Livaniana which hangs below a ridge of the lower Aradena gorge. The newly asphalted lower section of the road is a great improvement, but the long winding drive down the road with no safety barriers is still not for those who suffer from vertigo.
A boy and his dog were in charge of the Livaniana cafe (we could hear a woman inside the kitchen), and we spotted a new toilet below the cafe terrace.
We walked up through the village, past ancient and hollowed out olive trees, and admired the new stone and cement wall lining the extended and widened street which ends at the main church. A newer rough dirt and stone track leads beyond that to the old and new churches that lie on the footpath down into the Aradena gorge.
On the way back up we had to pull over carefully to the cliff side of the road to let 3 cars and pass which were loaded with Greek families who were probably on their way down to Finix or Lykos for the Easter holidays.“ Thanks a lot for this, Joan!!!
„The Day of Easter“ by Dionysios Solomos (A PaschalPoem)
Greece’s National poet DionysiosSolomos (1798–1857) was born on theGreek island of Zakynthos, to an elderlycount and his teenaged housekeeper.Solomos was educated in Italy, wherehe studied law and literature, but onreturning to Greece he relearnedGreek, and decided to write in demotic,or common modern, Greek. He gainedfame early on with his ‘Hymn to Liberty’(1823), a 158‐quatrain poem – the firsttwo stanzas are sung as the GreekNational Anthem.
The poem Η HμέρατηςΛαμπρής or TheDay of Easter is most famous from ascene from the award-winning film „EternityAnd A Day“, by Theodoros Angelopoulos(1998). In the movie Alexandros (Bruno Ganz)and the boy (Achilleas Skevis) are on a bus rideand encounter the Greek poet DionysiosSolomos (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who recitesverses from his poem Η HμέρατηςΛαμπρής.Some consider this scene part of one of thegreatest scenes in all cinema.
Η ημέρα της Λαμπρής, ∆ιονυσιος Σολωμος
Καθαρότατον ήλιο επρομηνούσε της αυγής το δροσάτο ύστερο αστέρι, σύγνεφο, καταχνιά, δεν απερνούσε τ‘ ουρανού σε κανένα από τα μέρη, και από εκεί κινημένο αργοφυσούσε τόσο γλυκό στο πρόσωπο τ‘ αέρι, που λες και λέει μες της καρδιάς τα φύλλα «γλυκειά η ζωή κι ο θάνατος μαυρίλα».
Χριστός ανέστη! Νέοι, γέροι και κόραις όλοι, μικροί, μεγάλοι ετοιμασθήτε, μέσα στις εκκλησιές τες δαφνοφόραις με το φως της χαράς συμμαζωχθήτε, ανοίξατε αγκαλιές ειρηνοφόραις ομπροστά στους Αγίους, και φιληθείτε, φιληθείτε γλυκά χείλη με χείλη, πέστε Χριστός ανέστη, εχθροί και φίλοι.
Δάφναις εις κάθε πλάκα έχουν οι τάφοι, και βρέφη ωραία στην αγκαλιά οι μαννάδες, γλυκόφωνα, κοιτώντας ταις ζωγραφι- σμέναις εικόνες, ψάλλουνε οι ψαλτάδες, λάμπει το ασήμι, λάμπει το χρυσάφι από το φως που χύνουνε οι λαμπάδες, κάθε πρόσωπο λάμπει απ‘ τ‘ αγιοκέρι, οπού κρατούνε οι Χριστιανοί στο χέρι.
The Day of Easter, by Dionysios Solomos
The last cool star of dawn was foretelling the brightest sunshine; no cloud, no drift of mist was travelling across any part of the sky. Coming from there, the breeze blew so sweetly across the face, so gently, that it seemed to whisper to the depths of the heart: ‘Life is sweet and death is darkness.’
‘Christ is Risen!’ Young and old, maidens, everyone, little and great, prepare! Inside the laurel-covered churches, gather in the light of joy! Open your arms and with them offer peace, that the icons of the saints may see. Embrace and kiss other sweetly, lip on lip, let friend and foe proclaim, ‘Christ is Risen!’
Laurels are placed on every tomb, beautiful babes are held in mothers’ arms, the choristers sing sweetly as they come before the icons. Bright is the silver, bright is the gold, under the light of the Easter candles. Each face alights before the holy candles, that Christians bear in hand.
Photo taken by Hercules Milas at the Argolic gulf, close to Nea Kios village, Argolida, Peloponnese, Greece. He thinks that this man is collecting worms (for baits), he’s not sure though! What do you think?
There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there is nothing left to do, and nothing else to pursue.
