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Bridges

         

 

BRIDGES

An eye for a tooth the doctor may have said

as I was looking sideways from her chair

while she worked standing and I day dreamt

that numb from the tenderly pending motion

of threads of hair that lightly obscured her eyes

I would find the potion that unavailingly extends

braids gathered under a medical cap

seeking to lure me to highways and alleys

of desire which like the Brooklyn Βridge

in that irresistible poem by Hart Crane connects

her house with the Manhattan doctors’ offices

but I doubt that she ever said anything like that

as the demands of dentistry are very high

and who has the time to read ancient scripts

that could bridge the Atlantic itself

on their wings bringing back this angel

to Polish soil again where an ancestor

was toothlessly dreaming of smiling rabbis

 

Translated by Maria Koundoura & the author

[First published in the “Bridges” 2015 Calendar of the Hellenic Authors’ Society]

 

        

Γιώργος Χουλιάρας

ΓΕΦΥΡΕΣ

Οφθαλμόν αντί οδόντος μπορεί να είπε η γιατρός

που λοξά κοίταζα βυθισμένος στην πολυθρόνα της

γιατί δούλευε όρθια πλάι μου ενώ ονειροπολούσα

πως ναρκωμένος από τρυφερά εκκρεμείς κινήσεις

των μαλλιών που ελαφρά συσκότιζαν τα μάτια της

θα έβρισκα το φίλτρο που αλυσιτελώς επεκτείνει

μαζεμένες κάτω από ιατρικό σκούφο πλεξούδες

γυρεύοντας να παρασύρει σε λεωφόρους και στενά

της επιθυμίας που όπως η γέφυρα του Μπρούκλιν

στο ακαταμάχητο εκείνο ποίημα του Χαρτ Κρέιν

θα συνέδεε το σπίτι της με το ιατρείο στο Μανχάταν

αλλά αμφιβάλλω αν πράγματι είπε κάτι τέτοιο

καθώς είναι σκληρές οι απαιτήσεις της οδοντιατρικής

και ποιος έχει χρόνο να διαβάσει αρχαίες γραφές

που ακόμη και τον Ατλαντικό θα γεφύρωναν

στα φτερά τους επιστρέφοντας τον άγγελο αυτό

στα πολωνικά πάλι χώματα όπου ένας παππούς

χωρίς δόντια ονειρευόταν χαμόγελα των ραββίνων

 

[Συμμετοχή στο Ημερολόγιο 2015 της Εταιρείας Συγγραφέων με θέμα «Γέφυρες»]

 

 

In a letter from Yiorgos Chouliaras, 7.3.2015, he states:

Let me extend best wishes for the Wroclaw “bridging” poetry workshop you are helping set up as well as thank you for your invitation to participate.

For more than twenty years, the Hellenic Authors’ Society, in collaboration with major publishers, has been bringing together an annual calendar with literary contributions by its members.

“Bridges” is the theme of the 2015 Hellenic Authors’ Society Calendar published at the end of last year by Patakis. In fact, we have arranged for its publication to be celebrated in Patras, in collaboration with the Rio-Antirrio bridge authorities & others, on World Poetry Day on March 21.

“Bridges” is also the title of my calendar contribution (which, in fact, obliquely refers to Poland) and I am copying here (and attaching as well) the poem in English translation and in the original Greek. It must be read non-stop, “in a single breath.”

               

 

Comment:

So that others have an idea as to which bridge the poem refers to, and not only to the famous Brooklyn which reminds you of the time you spend in New York, the Rio bridge was opened near Patras just before the Olympic Games held in Athens 2004.

 

              

I took these photos from the car while driving to Ioannina on Dec. 27th when news reached a ferry had caught fire, and again when returning 2nd of January of the New Year.

Since Yiorgos Chouliaras advises that the poem should be read in one breath or at one stroke, it evokes an association of wishing to run over a bridge as quickly as possible out of fear it could collapse before being able to reach safely the other side.

                 

 

That fear of a collapsing bridge is real. During the most recent heavy rains in the New Year, and shortly after Greek elections were held on January 25th which brought Tsipras of the Epirus region into power as Prime Minister, the famous Arta bridge did collapse due to the force of flood waters. Even more strange is that around that bridge, there exists the myth of Manolis, the bridge builder. He never succeeded from ever constructing the bridge without it collapsing over and again, until he was advised in order to make the foundation more firm, he needs to sacrifice a woman. It ended tragically to be his own wife.

       

        Toll for Rio Bridge

Curious is that the Hellenic Author Society should have a similar theme this time around, that is when poetry day is observed on March 21.

Hatto Fischer

7.3.2015

 

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