Jorge Luis Borges - Chess

In their solemn corner, the players
govern the lingering pieces. The chessboard
delays them until daybreak in its severe
sphere in which colors are hateful.
Inside they radiate magical severity
the forms: Homeric tower, light
horse, armed queen, last king,
oblique bishop and attacking pawns.
When the players will have gone,
when time will have consumed them,
certainly the ritual will have not ceased.
In the Orient this war was lit
which amphitheater is today all the earth.
As the other, this game is infinite.
Fainting king, slanting bishop, fierce
queen, straightforward tower and cunning pawn
on the black and white path
searching and fighting their armed battle.
They ignore the player’s pointing hand
governs his destiny,
they ignore that a tamed severity
holds his will and day.
The player is himself a prisoner
(the sentence is Omar’s) of another board
of dark nights and light days.
God moves the player, and he, the chess piece.
Which God behind God begins the conspiracy
of dust and time and dream and agony?

EZLN El Fuego Y La Palabra

Το EZLN El Fuego Y La Palabra Fuego είναι μια συλλογή από 4 CD με μουσική από συγκροτήματα και καλλιτέχνες, σύντροφους των Ζαπατίστας στο Μεξικό και τον κόσμο. Επαναστατικά τραγούδια εμπνευσμένα από το Ζαπατίστικο κίνημα.

1. Fuego

2. Palabra

3. Resistencia

4. Dignidad

T. S. Eliot - The Naming of Cats

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

Manolis Anagnostakis - The Chess / Το Σκάκι

Come to play...
I will give you my queen
She was once my dear
Now I don't have a dear

I will give you my towers
Now I don't shoot my friends
They have died long ago
Before I did

All, all my horses I will give you
All, all my horses I will give you
Only this crazyman I will keep
Who knows to go to one colour only

Jumping from the one edge to the other
Laughing to all these armors
Invading to your lines
Bringing mess to your stable lines

Come to play...
This king was never mine
and these soldiers, I want them for what!
They go ahead without dreams

All, all my horses I will give you
All, all my horses I will give you
Only this crazyman I will keep
Who knows to go to one colour only

Jumping from the one edge to the other
Laughing to all these armors
Invading to your lines
Bringing mess to your stable lines

Come to play...
and shall this game have no end.

         ***

Έλα να παίξουμε.

Θα σου χαρίσω τη βασίλισσά μου.
( Ήταν για μένα μια φορά η αγαπημένη.
Τώρα δεν έχω πιά αγαπημένη )

Θα σου χαρίσω τους πύργους μου
( Τώρα πιά δεν πυροβολώ τους φίλους μου
Έχουν πεθάνει καιρό πριν από μένα )

Κι ο βασιλιάς αυτός δεν ήτανε ποτέ δικός μου.

Κι ύστερα τόσους στρατιώτες τι τους θέλω;
( Τραβάνε μπρός, τυφλοί, χωρίς καν όνειρα )

Όλα , και τα άλογά μου θα στα δώσω.

Μονάχα ετούτον τον τρελό μου θα κρατήσω.
Που ξέρει μόνο σ ένα χρώμα να πηγαίνει
Δρασκελώντας τη μια άκρη ως την άλλη
Γελώντας μπρός στις τόσες πανοπλίες σου
Μπαίνοντας μέσα στις γραμμές σου ξαφνικά
Αναστατώνοντας τις στέρεες παρατάξεις.

Κι αυτή δεν έχει τέλος η παρτίδα.

Jacques Prévert - Family Life

Μother does her knitting
The son fights in the war
She finds that quite natural the mother
And the father what is he doing the father?
He's in business
His wife does knitting
His son fights in the war
He, he's in business
He finds that quite natural the father
And the son and the son
What does he find the son?
He finds nothing absolutely nothing the son
The son his mother does knitting his father 's in business he's in the war
When he's finished the war
He's going to be in business with his father
War goes on the mother goes on she's kniting
The father goes on he's in business
The son is killed he doesn't go on
The father and the mother are going to the cemetery
They find that natural the father and the mother
Life goes on with knitting war business
Business war knitting war
Business business business
Life with the cemetery