“The small world, the great!” of ODYSSEUS ELYTIS with music by
GEORGE COUROUPOS
1. NOVEMBER SECOND (04:56)
CD Ι
recitation (“The Song of the Poet”, Maria Nephele)
HE WAS A CHILD
narration (“First Things First”, Open Papers and “The Leaf Seer”, Stepchildren)
2. [FORTUNE SMALL INDEED] (04:37)
song (“The Rhos οf Eros”, selection, The Rhos οf Eros) 3. MY EYES DAZZLED (01:06) narration (“First Things First”, Open Papers) 4. MELANCHOLY OF THE AEGEAN (03:36) recitation (Orientations) 5. [LIFE] (02:06)
song (“Of the Aegean”, II, Orientations) 6. I HAVE CONCEIVED MY FORM (01:35)
narration (“First Things First”, Open Papers) 7. THE CONCERT OF HYACINTHS, I (03:21) song (Orientations)
p. 77 77
79 81 82 84 85 86
8. THE MAD POMEGRANATE TREE (03:08)
87
9. THE ORANGE GIRL (03:14)
90
10. THE PASSIONS, b (THOUGH VERY YOUNG) (01:21)
91
recitation (Orientations)
song (Sun the First)
recitation (The Axion Esti)
THOUGH I AM HARDLY BRAVE
narration (“Chronicle of a Decade”, Open Papers) 11. [BECAUSE WE HAVE NO BREAD] (01:57) song (The Sovereign Sun)
91 92
12. AN ENTIRE CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE (02:40)
93
13. THE PASSIONS, IV (I ADDED UP MY DAYS) (05:29)
95
narration (“Chronicle of a Decade”, Open Papers) recitation (The Axion Esti)
THE PASSIONS, c (ALONE I GOVERNED MY SORROW)
recitation with musical accompaniment (The Axion Esti) 14. THREE TIMES THE TRUTH (05:35) recitation with musical accompaniment (The Light-tree and the Fourteenth Beauty)
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96 97
1. LUCK (02:41)
CD ΙΙ p. 100
song (The Rhos of Εros)
2. BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN A GARDEN (04:27)
101
3. LITTLE GREEN SEA (01:33)
103
4. BLISSFUL DONNA (03:31)
105
5. STONE, PLANT, GIRL (01:44)
106
6. THE MONOGRAM, II, III (I MOURN THE SUN) (06:42)
107
7. I SAW HER EVERYWHERE (01:02)
110
8. THE CLOUD (02:42)
110
9. THE CLOUDGATHERER (01:21)
111
10. [MUSIC SETTLED] (01:40)
112
11. PAST MIDNIGHT (04:14)
113
12. “CUPID AND PSYCHE” (01:53)
115
13. [ONE MORE CIGARETTE] (02:15)
116
of the World”, 5, Three Poems Under a Flag of Convenience) 14. POETRY ALONE IS (00:21)
117
song (Orientations)
recitation (The Light-tree and the Fourteenth Beauty) song (Orientations)
narration (“The Girls”, Open Papers)
recitation with musical accompaniment (The Monogram) recitation (“The Presence”, Maria Nephele) song, (Maria Nephele)
recitation, (Maria Nephele)
song (“Clear Skies”, XX, Orientations) recitation with musical accompaniment (The Oxopetra Elegies) recitation (The Oxopetra Elegies)
recitation with musical accompaniment (“The Almond
recitation (“As Endymion”, West of Sorrow) 15. MYSTIC VERSICLES (08:09) FOR A MATINS IN THE HERMITAGE OF APOLLOS
song (Stepchildren)
118
16. PRAISED BE THE LIGHT (00:18)
120
17. [THROUGH FISHING COMES THE SEA] (02:28)
121
recitation (“The Gloria”, The Axion Esti) song (Book of Signals, selection)
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Vocals:
TASSIS CHRISTOΥANNIS CD I, tracks: 2, 7, 9, 11, 14
CD ΙI, tracks: 2, 6, 11, 13, 15, 17
THEODORA BAKA
CD I, tracks: 2, 5, 11, 14
CD IΙ, tracks: 1, 4, 8, 10, 15, 17
Narration – Recitation:
DIMITRIS KATALIFOS
CD I, tracks: 1, 3, 6, 10, 12, 14 CD IΙ, tracks: 5, 7, 9, 11, 13
IOULITA ILIOPOULOU
CD I, tracks: 1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 14 CD IΙ, tracks: 3, 6, 12, 14
Piano: THANASSIS APOSTOLOPOULOS Violin: STELLA TSANI
Viola: ILIAS SDOUKOS
Cello: LEFKI KOLOVOU
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“THE SMALL WORLD, THE GREAT!” This short anthology constitutes an uninhibited journey
into Odysseus Elytis’ lyrical and profound poetic expression, into the bright colours of his imagery, into the ideal
landscapes of his mental realm; landscapes created with knowledge and passion, with contrariety and dream, with
boldness and method, with the minimum and essential
elements of life, in a perspicacious and multifaceted mind
that knows how to perpetually lay claim to a life-lasting moment, to a life more real.
This anthology of Odysseus Elytis’ poetic speech in-
cludes poems from all periods of his work and excerpts from his prose –on the significance of art, the stylization of his
poetics– in a shifting context comprising his own works of
art and photos which, along with the accompanying music, is intended for Greek readers and listeners; yet also,
through the systematic work of able translators, for the English, French, Italian and Spanish.
“The small world, the great!” is a journey of respect and
love for the work of the poet with the valuable guidance
of George Couroupos’ music; a music that knows, with its own spirituality and sensitivity, how to travel effortlessly along with the lyricism and intellectual power of Odysseus Elytis’ poetry and lead us deeper into its magic.
Ioulita Iliopoulou
Translation: Sofia Georgiadou
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1921
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NOVEMBER SECOND the first time on an
Aegean island’s soil at crack of dawn.
“The Song of the Poet”, MARIA NEPHELE
Translation: Jeffrey Carson - Nikos Sarris
HE WAS A CHILD, a small child. On a night my mother lay awake, a piece of moon in her hands. It was red, huge, pointed like a saw on its cutting
edge, and smoking. Sitting on a boulder, she did not speak, just looked away toward Smallwater (Ligoneri). A harmoni ca wept the whole length of the shore and you saw sha-
dows lengthen. Then wind came up. I heard, one by one, the leaves talk in my sleep. “Child, small child.” The water rocked me, and the land as well, and the win-
dows shining in the distance, and the white suspended chambers.
From childhood he took to letters wrong, he asked for “a script of sun’s seaweed.” Who else understands it?
Someone had to be found. I started training on a smile; a difficult thing, my lips hurt me. I had to regurgitate years of childhood diseases, family mourning and neuroses to
reach the place where I could give them a proud mountain’s
carriage, the habits of the sunset and the east. But people,
doubting, brooded in their souls. Some even asked me to account for that tear I didn’t shed.
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Child small child.
“What was meant for you” “One day you’ll remember it” It was enough the women were weeping. I envied only their tenderness. I took the sun in my apron like a flower and opened its petals one by one. [...] It was blue with a shiny patch in the middle.
“Child little child with chestnut hair”
“I who love you” “Say always” “Always” Things started to come closer, trustful, like birds. The most difficult I domesticated with a smile. [...] A small sick child made me try to plan shells for the first time. I drew courage
and began with seawater and a small church. It smelled like
a cave and there, close to the altar, lilies suddenly blazed. From weeds I made names, and from names women I embraced, their fresh waist trembling like a running water.
At last, I only had to think of something to see it scored in capitals on stone. A large weight left me, as if the jails and hospitals had emptied in one stroke. [...] Eons had longed for this uprising. I took pleasure and revenge. “Child little child with chestnut hair.”
“You were meant to be lost here so to be saved far away
You were meant to be lost here so to be saved far away”. “First Things First”, OPEN PAPERS Translation: Olga Broumas
“The Leaf Seer”, STEPCHILDREN
Translation: Jeffrey Carson - Nikos Sarris
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