Thursday 9 March 2023

Streets of Athens / Δρόμοι της Αθήνας


Ένας καινούργιος ψηφιακός δίσκος (CD), με τον γενικό τίτλο Something in Between κυκλοφόρησε στην Αγγλία αυτές τις ημέρες (6 Μαρτίου 2023), με κάποιο ελληνικό ενδιαφέρον, αφού ένα τραγούδι του τιτλοφορείται «Streets of Athens» και αναφέρεται στην αγαπημένη διαμαντόπετρα στης γης το δαχτυλίδι.


Συνθέτης και τραγουδιστής είναι ο Mike Cohen. Στιχουργός είναι ο αγαπητός φίλος και εκλεκτός συνοδοιπόρος στα μονοπάτια της Ποίησης Richard Devereux.
 
Στις 16 Feb 2015 ο Mike δήλωσε χαρακτηριστικά:
 
Richard and I wrote this song about our musical heroes. It also pays homage to a remarkable politician Manolis Glesos. Austerity and homelessness in Athens. What does the future hold?
 
Χθες ο Richard ανέφερε:
 
Streets of Athens imagines Mike and I going for a walk around Athens with our musical heroes: Ralph (Mike's) and Mikis Theodorakis (mine).
 
Οι στίχοι του τραγουδιού έχουν ως εξής:
 
The Streets of Athens
 
Athens is where the West meets
The turbulent, incongruous East.
How strange to see her streets
Named after old philosophers.
We watch the kaleidoscope turn
Through present – to future – from past.
 
Let’s walk together
Through the streets of Athens;
You and me and Ralph McTell
And Mikis Theodorakis.
 
For 400 years, more or less,
The Turkish Pasha held the keys
To the ancient Parthenon
Where a minaret was built
And the crescent flag once flew
And strange, haunting bugles blew.
 
The Parthenon looked down upon
The city that starved in ’41.
Manolis Glezos climbed up the pole
And cut down the flutterin’ Swastika.
He’s over 90 now – a young man still ––
An MP for the Radical Party.
 
Let’s walk together
Through the streets of Athens;
You and me and Ralph McTell
And Mikis Theodorakis.
 
Come with me to Omonia Square,
See the beggars who are always there:
Some crippled, some blind - life’s been unkind.
They’re hawkin’ Lottery tickets;
Makes you think how likely is it
There’s a winner in that withered hand.
 
The Greek Gods were the Sun and the Sea;
Now the sun is dim and the sea is rough,
There’s a cold wind blowin’ from the North,
It whispers its name: ‘Austerity’.
There’s people starvin’ again in Athens,
In Omonia Square, almost everywhere.
 
Let’s walk together
Through the streets of Athens;
You and me and Ralph McTell
And Mikis Theodorakis. 

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