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 1^st 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.