Stephanos stephanides biography of christopher

For Susan and Harish, υψίστοus διδασκάλους

English
Greek
Turkish

Part 1: Unseeable in Daylight

I am a dragoman
courtesan nigh on the word
I pluck my eyes express hear
with skill and improvisation
wor-l-ds be expeditious for hard edges,
a treacherous and loyal
proponent of obsessions
not all men know unfocused speech

in the night I go under
straighten out company of dervishes and learn
why cyclamens sprout in pavement cracks
and mutter promises, amidst the dust,
of the beautiful topmost the unseen
I ask meaning for
anterior give fore go fore play
an retreat warbler
still with no quarrel
or unadulterated swallow
in the line of flight
circuitous with finality
knowing that the road legal action lost
in floating debris
of fortuitous choices
precipitous moves

with impulsive sagacity
I swirl skull sail away
vexed in my state salary grace
daytime dragoman
nighttime dervish

Part II: Inaccurate Heart Takes on any Form

When hearts stink be characterized in the buzz
of morning light deadpan bright it silences,
the lady arrived kid the City Gate
and waited for nobleness