Beloved Smyrna

COVER

Music by Giorgos Theofanous

Lyrics by Thanos Papanicolaou

Premiere by Petros Gaitanos

From the beautiful tables and the silver on the buffet

Now breaths and screams in the land of terror

With ravani and baklava and grandma’s kunefe

How to sweeten the uprooting of pain

From the celebrations, the joys and the cup of coffee

Now the traumatized Saint Fotini

Awaits from God the charity of a little love

In her homeland the same, now burned

Smyrna, you who you are the dreamed of

Mother of mine and root of anise

I search still in an unequal world

For my life that is lost

Smyrna, you the uprooted

Have you not yet tired of being afraid

But inside me you never withered

Rise up blooming

Smyrna, you the beloved

From Mount Sipylus the Virgin watches tearfully

The sacred soil quenching its thirst with blood

And purchasing again with the kisses of Judas

People’s dreams from the betraying spear

Now permanently silent the welcomes and hellos

Crying and pain now make the noise

He who can bear to remember from where his hat hails

One day his life will be justified

(trans. Debra Szybinski)

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