The Knight And Death

Nikos Gatsos is poet and writter with a name quite well-known in Hellas. Even now , before write these words , from a quick view that i had to his biography, i doubt that his works will ever be of any intrest to me.

However, some months ago i found a poem , that when i saw that it is signed by him , i was wondering if its the same person or just a synonym. I found this poem great as it is based and inspired by

 Albrecht Dürer`s famous painting RITTER TOD UND TEUFEL. Amidst the miserable, grey and utterly boring poetry of post-WW2 writters. This poem is for sure an exception. 

Also, after the poem i added notes to some references that the readers outside Hellas might not understand.

THE KNIGHT AND DEATH (1513)

Just so, I see you motionless

traveling through the years with the horse of Akritas(1) and the lance of Ai-Giorgi(2)

I would put beside you

with the dark shapes that stand eternally beside you

until a place where you are extinguished eternally with them

until you become a fire in the great Chance where you were born

I would put beside you

an orange from the snow-covered fields of the moon

I would unfold for you the veil of an evening

with red Antares(3) singing of the young men

with the River of Sky overflowing into August

to weep with the North Star and freeze

I would spread out meadows

waters that never watered the lilies of Germany

and I would ornament the iron you wear

with a sprig of basil and a handful of mint

with the arms of Plapoutas(4) and the sword of Nikitaras(5)

But I, who saw your descendants like birds

split open on a spring day the sky of my country

and I saw the cypress trees of the Morea(6) stop breathing

there on the fields of Nauplion(7)

before the waiting embrace of the wounded sea

where the eons wrestled with the crosses of gallantry

I would place now beside you

the bitter eyes of a youth 

and the closed eyelids

in the mud and the blood of Holland.

This dark land

will someday become green again

The iron hand of Götz will overturn the caissons 

It will mound them with sheaves of barley and rye

And in the dark oaks with the dead loves

there where time turned a young leaf to stone

in the breasts where trembled a tear-stained rose 

a star will shine silent as a spring daisy

But you will remain motionless

with the horse of Akritas and the lance of Ai-Georgi you will travel through the years

a restless hunter from the race of heroes

with those dark shapes that stand eternally beside you

until a day when you will vanish eternally with them

until you become again a fire in the great Chance where you were born

until in the caves of the river

the heavy hammers of patience resound again

not for ornaments and swords

but for pruning hooks and plows.

Nikos Gatsos 1947

NOTES

1. Akritas. Soldier belong in a military class responsible for guarding the borders of the empire during the Byzantine times

2. St-George

3.Red Antares. For more info see here 

4. Plapoutas. Greek hero of the revolution against the Turks in 1821

5. Nikitaras. The same like 4

6. Morea. The name in the middle ages of Peloponnese. Region in South Hellas.

7. Nauplion. Historical city in South Hellas. The first capital of Hellas after the revolution of 1821.