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The current events urge me to interrupt the flow of "I REMEMBER TOMORROW" so as to articulate thoughts which I am no longer able to suppress.
The PASSION OF CHRIST is a poem written during the riots in Paris and the ODE TO MIKIS THEODORAKIS was written in reaction to his speech at the conference on the role of the United Nations in the 21st century as published in the Cyprus Weekly.
Knowing what my people, in the immediate as well as in the wider sense, are going through at this moment, one may pardon me for the strength of some of the sentiments expressed but it will be of no benefit, neither to you nor to us, if thoughts like these were to be silenced. I strongly recommend to acknowledge Mr. Theodorakis' speech and to pay respect to the constructive intention that motivated his words.

"Before this impasse I see but two ways out: to either go to the deep roots of the evil and strike with the willingness and cooperation of the strong, or the weak will have to seek and find other ways of defending themselves, standing exclusively on their own feet, and basically supported by the hundreds of millions of weak and potential future victims, that, if they stand together, have a chance of resisting and being victorious."

(Mikis Theodorakis at his speech at the Conference on the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century, Delphi 01.07.2006

 

O mighty friend of my soul, you

Marble pillar of the dreams of my youth

Who saw how time has turned full circle

Know you, in your heart of Greek skies,

That this has been your privilege

Theodorakis

Darling of Iraklis and Dyonis

What mighty power is your age!

Greece, with Penelope's loyalty, has awaited her hero

In all the long years of your spirit's odyssey

And you have come

I thank you for your bitterness

But I say to you, as a son

While my motherland lies in ruins

What you have sang in times dark as these

(And what you said of yourself, I am now saying of me

And what was true of you then, now holds true of us all):

Do not despair when you see Greekdom on the ground

For it has fallen only to rise

 

                              No conqueror but Ali

                              No sword but Dhulfuqar

 

O cosmic fire of these stars

O my falcon whose red heart descended

From the passion fruit's wounds in scarlet flight

What is it, friend

That cries within me?

 

The world, without

Cried out for redemption

And death seemed a sweet fruit of heaven

The chalice went

From hand to hand

 

Seneca drained it

And there was none of us spared

Our souls spat blood

And Christ went to fight

In the mountains of the Sierra Maestra

 

In the Messiah's motherland

Grew bitter fruit

In Crete's taverns the swarthy Pan

Whipped

The bouzoukis

 

Like pink haw-thorn our hearts bled

Agape mou

Why would you go with him

Your mother asks

He brings the sword

 

When man walked the waters

And with his heart's flesh

Fed

The fivethousand

They cried: Lay him in chains!

 

They cried: Cruzify

Him along with the Sons

Of the Night!

The outcasts of this world are those

That dare to walk upright

 

The son of man spoke:

Among those that were sent

To your aid, your enemy

Ranks first, for he's -remember-

Your mirror, deep within

 

How are you to defeat him

Were yourself to remain

Undefeated?

Your own eye sees,

The stranger's fails

 

If your own eye, however

Is barring your sight

Tear it off

To be free

To be true

 

O Preacher of Peace, they mocked

Why doest Thou take up the sword

To undo your own word?

Lo, it keeps me loyal, persecuted Christ said

To the truth of the heart that shaped it

 

O play the Santour on the stadium of Athens

As your beloved remembers your glow

While his lips, torn with longing

Caress the bleeding dust on the stones

Of the isle Macronissos

 

Christ carried the cross

Through Jerusalem's streets

For every eye to see

He drank his Lord's lips

And, in full trance, kissed the thorns

 

And his soul and appearance

Were no longer the same

Of all beings, who are you

To be yourself and not you?

Ana 'avda de rabba de shmaya.

 

Like truth and falsehood split,

So split body and soul

Outward and inner self

A blinded eye forged death but Christ

Shall not die on your cross

 

On Bet Lehem's roads Palestine

Was dragged by her hair in the mud

Her bare hands, chained, sang like a bird

Tormented is man's heart

And bleeds into the sun

 

But sometimes it rises

And grows into the skies

To walk upon the waters

Kyrios mou

Redeem

 

When in suffering he remained undefeated

The council's guile devised

To turn against him, as the ultimate weapon

His own words and proclaim

Him as their martyred god

 

But he said: Every word

Can be killed by a word

But my words

Are not words

For I am of HIM and HE is of me

Christos mou

 

Not in doctrine but in spirit

Not different

Not the same

The prophet and his god---

The last truth

 

Humanity, denied

Broke through in the suburbs of Paris

Redeem, Kyrios mou

The fire flood of anger

Burnt our own flames too

 

Where are the days when Christ was man

In the jungles of Bolivia

And walked among us and was flesh

And bathed his limbs in River Congo

And rose to life from Dyarbakir's ashes

 

Liberator

On your heart Ahmad's seal

Christos mou

In Santiago's stadium bayonets

Stood erect to cut off your healing hands

 

The Antichrist then rose

to prayer with you

In your loneliness' darkest abyss

He spoke: My saviour, yield to me

I hold scepter and crown of this world

 

And I shall put them at your feet

Thus the mighty Emperor ventured

His world-commanding voice all sweetness

His hands all blood, his stolen gold

All splendour and decay

 

He called you

Christos mou

To claim you

But instead of an answer

You spat at his feet

 

In lands of lotus flowers and orchids

Your voice drowned out the guns

You held out in the jungle

Your still enduring love

Withstood the empire's assault

 

O time, you dove with the olive branch

O let us emerge from the flood

Save us, o Lord, from lies and shame

And let us, in the heart's plain scripture

Read the truth dogma's veil can't conceal

 

Ask me not of my doctrine

For faith and creed transcend cult

And beloved and lover unite a thousand denominations

In the oneness of their love that is flame

Insurgent, saviour, shield

 

And holds out in the darkness

The darkest age of all

Is a light and a torch to my soul

Waters shall not drown it nor shall fires consume it

Nor oppression extinguish it nor betrayal belie it

 

Nor shall misery deny it

Nor inhumanity defy it

In all eternity

Man's soul lives on in me

Le'ela ule 'almei 'almaya

 

 

Ana 'avda de rabba de shmaya (Aramaic)-- I am a servant of the Lord of Heavens

Le'ela ule'almei 'almaya (Aramaic)-- In all eternities

Christos mou (Greek)-- My Messiah

Kyrios mou (Greek)-- My Lord

Agape mou (Greek) -- My Love

Iraklis -- Herkules