THESSALONIKI, DAYS OF 1969 A.D. Poem by Manolis Anagnostakis

In Egyptou Street -first turning rightThere
now stands the Transaction Bank Building
Tourist agencies and emigration bureaus
And kids can no longer play with all the traffic
passing
In any case the kids have grown, the times you knew have
passed
They now no longer laugh, whisper secrets, share trust,
Those that survived, that is, as grave illnesses have
appeared since then
Floods, deluges, earthquakes, armoured soldiers;
They remember their fathers? words: you'll experience
better days
It's of no importance in the end if they didn't experience
them, they repeat the lesson to their own children
Always hoping that the chain will one day break
Perhaps with their children?s children or the children of their
children's children.
For the time being, in the old street as was said, there stands
the Transactions Bank
-I transact, you transact, he transactsTourist
agencies and emigration bureaus
-we emigrate, you emigrate, they emigrateWherever
I travel Greece wounds me, as the Poet said
Greece with its lovely islands, lovely offices, lovely
churches
Greece of the Greeks.

Translated by David Conolly