GIORGOS I. BOTIS
Dr. GIORGOS I. BOTIS was born in Vachlia, Arcadia. He studied Theology, Political Science and also attended Law School. He has divided his time between his professional duties as a lawyer and his devotion to poetry and literature in general. In addition to his legal and theological texts he has published six bilingual (Greek - English) poetry collections:
1.- Travelogue
2.- The Alphabet of Love
3.- To my Mother
4.- Omitted from Love
5.- Testimony and
6.- In praise of Love (2015), which won 1st Prize in Poetry from the Literary Society “Parnassos”.
Seven of his works in prose have also been published in Greek and English (translation by Philip Ramp):
1.- “Traveling to Mongolia”
2.- “Return to Innocence - Letters to Euridice”
3.- “A storm cannot last long”, Interview with Zacharoula Gaitanaki, Athens 2010, Platanos editions
4.- “En Route”
5.- “Exit from No Exit”
6.- “A taste of Eternity” and
7.- “A modern Tragedy”
In the press: “Love’s eulogy”, poems.
To be published: 1.- In our days
2.- Reflections of a correspondence
3.- Poems of local history
4.- “The route”
5.- “Gortynian vocabulary” and
6.-“Filings of truth”
e-mail: ge.botis@yahoo.gr
Selected poems by GIORGOS I. BOTIS:
YOUR EYES
The eagle steady radiance of your eyes,
that sweetest of trickling,
and that intoxicating brilliance,
touches on my soul
and the mellowness of my feelings
reaches the furthest corners of my mind.
THE DWARFS
We spoke of meeting in Ithaca: it ought
to be in a leeward cove.
We ate of lotus, without ever giving a thought
that rather than giants we had become dwarfs.
LES NAINS
Nous avons parlé d’une rencontre à Ithaca: elle devait
Avoir lieu dans une crique balayée par le vent.
Nous avons mangé des lotus, sans jamais nous rendre compte
Que plutôt que de géants, nous étions devenus des nains.
GIORGOS I. BOTIS
Traduit en français par Athanase Vantchev de Thracy
FIRE – BREATHING HOPE
In the shimmering that is dawn
the facing of the emerging light,
in the rosy-fingered breaking of clean day
it is your very own fire-breathing hope I seek.
POWER
One me, one you
another waiting over yonder;
we become, when two
together, a steel first, even stronger.
OPPOSITION
Hard thoughts, pirates quite perfidious,
you stab my soul each and every day.
I make my heart into a Pine
from all the knife-wounds you have made
squeeze out drops of resin, steadily.
WHEN I GROW SILENT
I speak
and my words are not heard by anyone.
I cry out
and I’m not the only one hears my voice’s sound.
I leave
and to the same place my imagination brings me
back.
I dream
and, when I waken, my dreams disappear.
I fall silent
and find that I myself am my own companion
in the eternal harmony of the Universe.
TO ANNA
To remind us that in life there are no dead ends.
A person pure and smiling you passed the AchernonA
Nd at Hades not a glance. Seen by none not on the ruN.
No, you were born again you won a new suN.
A moment of health and joy for you AnnA.
EACH TIME
Each time you leave
you also leave behind:
the shadow of your kindness,
the image of your innocence,
the species of your charms,
your limpid laugh
the broadsword of your candidness,
the treasure of your silence
so my road of such loneliness
may thus become one luminous.
GIORGOS I. BOTIS
English translation by Philip Ramp.
