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Impressio, by Antonis Balasopoulos (Greek and English)

4/19/2022

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Picture
Gare Saint Lazare, by Claude Monet (France) 1877

Greek:
​
Impressio
Μνήμη Θέμου Αυγερινού
​

Για να δούμε, πρέπει να ξεχάσουμε το όνομα του αντικειμένου που κοιτάμε.
Claude Monet

Το πρωί, ο Claude Monet ξυπνούσε
γυμνός, με τα μάτια του γεμάτα νερό
γιατί η νύχτα τον ευλογούσε πάντα με λήθη
για τα ονόματα των πραγμάτων.

Στη Gare Saint-Lazare, ο καπνός των ατμομηχανών
γαλαζώνονταν, κινούνταν με τη βραδύτητα 
την άνθισης προς την καρποφορία του στερεού·
ή ίσως, οι αρχαίες πέτρες του Παρισιού

εξαϋλώνονταν στα όνειρα ενοίκων, 
για στοές εμπορικές, μαγικά αντικείμενα 
απ’ τις αποικίες, για το Le Bon Marché και
τα τμήματα της επιθυμίας σε κάθε όροφο

του ύπνου. Ο καπνός αυτός ήταν μια σκέψη
του κτιρίου· το κτίριο μια συνεπαγωγή
του καπνού. Και η εντύπωση
ήταν προσωρινή και ήταν μόνιμη, 

η μονιμότητα του προσωρινού, 
το πράγμα στη διαδικασία
απώλειας του δέρματος του ονόματος, 
το χρώμα στο υποκειμενικό του μεγαλείο,

όλα να στροβιλίζονται αδιάκριτα γύρω
απ’ όλα, ατελή, μετασχηματιζόμενα, 
κι ο Claude Monet γυμνός, με τα μάτια
γεμάτα νερό, με το πινέλο στο χέρι,

που ήδη δεν ήταν πινέλο, ήταν μόνο 
τα δάχτυλά του γαλάζια και φευγαλέα,
ήταν μόνο τα δάχτυλά του καπνός, 
κι ο ίδιος αυτός, ο πάντα αόρατος στο κάδρο.

​**

Impressio
​

“To see, we must forget the name of the thing we’re looking at”.
Claude Monet
 
At dawn, Claude Monet awoke
naked, his eyes watery
because the night always blessed him with oblivion
regarding the names of things.
 
In the Gare Saint-Lazare, the smoke of the steam engines
turned blue, moved with the slowness  
of blooming toward the fruition of the solid;
or perhaps, the ancient stones of Paris
 
were liquified into the dreams of the tenants
on arcades, on magical objects
from the colonies, on Len Bon Marché 
and the departments of desire in every floor
 
of sleep. This smoke was a thought
of the building; the building a consequence
of smoke. And the impression
was transient and it was permanent,
 
the permanence of the transient,
the thing in the process
of losing the skin of the name,
color in its subjective splendor,
 
everything swirling indiscriminately around
everything, imperfect, transformable,
and Claude Monet naked, his eyes
watery, in his hand his brush,
 
which already was not a brush, it was just
his fingers, blue and fleeting,
it was only his hands in smoke,
and he himself, always invisible in the frame.

Antonis Balasopoulos

Antonis Balasopoulos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1970 and is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Cyprus. He has published two volumes of creative prose and aphorisms (Through the Loophole and The Book of Brief Reflections), three poetry collections (Multiplicities of Zero, White on White and The Book of Creatures) and a collection of short fiction (The Cube and Other Stories), all in Greek. He has also translated Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, W.B. Yeats, Louise Glück and Ezra Pound. His poetry, fiction and translations have been published in several printed and online periodicals in Greece, Cyprus and the UK.
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