Epigrah: The seaside drama: women laugh while men get trauma.
OVERTURE (TV COMMERCIAL)
(ladies` vocal trio):
To Greece, Greece! When you are sick and tired,
To Greece, Greece! When plights distract you,
To Greece, Greece! When you seem no way out,
To Greece, Greece, Greece!
Greece, Greece! O liberal sun and b(i)ea(t)ches!
Greece, Greece! There grow plums`n`peaches!
Greece! Please! Greece!
(lady`s baby voice):
To satisfy your heart`s caprice
(man`s velvet voice):
You gotta go RIGHT NOW to Greece!
CABANA INTRODUCTION Act 1
SAPPHO: I`ve been observing your sitting on the beach for the second day ... Haven`t you ever been to Lesbos before?
ALCAEUS: No, I haven`t. Can I render you any service, ma`am?
S: You attracted my attention, there`s a kind of inescapability, an air of mystery that I feel about you! Who you?
A: Well, what d`you mean ... I`m Alcaeus Byron-Omnipotentassis. Al, just Al ... for close friends. So what?
S: As to me I am just, I`m only Sappho! Does my name talk something to you, Sir? Yes, yes, that very Sappho! The inventor of the lyric poetry!
A: Oh, my God! Now I see! Well, nice to meet you, ma`am. Tanto gusto, encantado!
S: The pleasure is all mine, Sir. More important is that you love and understand my poetry!
A: Yes, I do.
S: What is your favourite poem, eh? Mine, of course!
A: You know they are all delicate!
S: Remember any ... please!
A:... off the top of my head? Right now? Ah! They are all fine, afterall!
S (reciting): Μὴ κίνη χέραδασ Stir not the pebbles! γαρυίει δι ἄλος calls across the sea
Right now die without words
Be born again and die forever
May sea keep crying in the open
And seagulls moan ... I entreat:
`You echo!` ... ... ... ... ...
You are calm, indeed!
A: That poem will do!
S: What poem? You cannot have read it. I made that verse here, on the 9th of June, 05:21 a.m., at dawn.
A: I`ve meant that very poem hasn`t been familiar with me so far. Yet I`ve liked it immediately.
S (very pleased): My proposal. Let`s go to the seashore! ... Ben!
A: What for?
S: There are breakers there!
A: Then willingly! ... Sappho!
CHORUS: OH, YES! WIL-LING-LY! INTRODUCTIONS HAPPEN! SO DAMN PRETTY WELL. BUT FRANKLY SPEAKING, ALCAEUS, GRANDGRANDNEPHEW OF LORD BYRON HAD NEVER MET THE LITERARY BOHEMIA FACE TO FACE BEFORE. BUT THOUGH HE FELT SOME AMBIVALENCE IN RELATION TO THEM, SAPPHO MANAGED TO PROVOKE HIS VIVID INTEREST. SUDDENLY, HE MADE UP HIS MIND TO USE THAT HAPPY OPPORTUNITY AND PENETRATE INTO THE SUSPICIOUS, BIZARRE AND EVEN QUEER WORLD OF THAT SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STRATUM WHOSE REPRESENTATIVES HAD NOT TO DAILY AND ROUTINELY SPEND THE DULL AND LONG HOURS IN THE OFFICES OF THE BIG GAS&OIL CORPORATIONS.
Demis Roussos - From Souvenirs to Souvenirs https://youtu.be/pdoW2P049S0
FROM SOUVENIRS TO SOUVENIRS, OR ALL ABOUT EVES Act 2
They began to promenade along the seashore everyday and talk and talk and ... talk!!!
SAPPHO: Now I am despondent, I`ve got a vague premonition ... some vagueness. (She spitted in a way Alcaeus would have considered rather vulgar earlier.) It`s so strange but this night I smelled salt of the waves and sadness... My heart ached... everything is that tricky...
ALCAEUS: Say not so! Tricky .... Amazingly tricky! All! Common sense ... In search of it you may easily earn the perfect nervous exhaustion!
S (reciting): Ἕγω δὲ φίλημ᾽ ἀβροσύναν, καὶ μοι τὸ λάμπρον// ἔροσ ἀελίω καὶ τὸ κάλον λέλογχεν (I love refinement and for me// Love has the splendour and beauty of the sun).
Today I thought about what I loved
And it was hard for me to answer.
I love you, skyline, and wet sand I love,
Cart roads, but most of all
I love the eves ...
(very long rest)
A (puzzled): The what? Eves? What the eves?
S: And you, do YOU love the eves?
A: Me!?
S: To be on the eve! On the verge, on the brink! That`s my joy! On the eve of a gale, on the eve of my fate... Tell me if you are happy? I`m happy when I feel Mother Gaia! She sings under my feet, then I feel some mighty shocks and tremor! Are you fond of splashing through the puddles on your bare feet when it rains?
A: Sorry, but my radiculitis ... it hurts severely there (oh, no, it seems right here!) Awesome!
S: Would you like to be a vagabond? To wander everywhere aimlessly, for no reason?
A: On the one hand, due to my business activities, but, on the other hand ...
S: Stop being cagey! Are you happy, Sir? Eh, Al!
A: Wouldn`t you know it, my family ...
S: Enough! All`s clear, Sir!
A: No, no, no, I do not complain ...
S: You needn`t. I`ve grasped your idea!
A: Ma`am ... eh, Sappho ... May I ask you a tactless question? Are YOU married?
S: Let`s change the subject. I`m not ready to reply! My sweet comrade, you oughta get to learn that there`s but one form of an interaction between a woman and man. A single combat! Mortal! Corrida! Warfare! They all and always destroy each other!
A: I say! It`s out of all reason! It`s aweful!
S (reciting): ἀ δέ μίδρως κακχέεται, τρόμος δέ //and cold sweat holds me and shaking//παῖσαν ἄγρει, χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας//grips me all, greener than grass//ἔμμι,τεθνάκην δ' ὀλίγω 'πιδεύης// am and dead - or almost//φαίνομαι [ἄλλα]//I seem to me. (H.T.Wharton)
O turn it in, will you?! Aren`t you fed up
Your soul with my anguish, vagueness?
And stay where you are, in utter darkness,
The more so because we are no couple!
Pass me my scarf, or else it`s getting rumpled!
S:Wake up, mister! My headscarf, please!
A: Sorry I thought you were still reciting! Ha-ha!
S: No, I`ve finished. I know you are pleased and even want some more. By the way, I wrote that poem in London!
A: In London, how nice of you!
S: In a single room of my tiny hotel, after meeting my readers, those stalwart blue eyed Bobbies from the British police. By the way, it happened in that famous bookstore! It was a day of my triumph! I always specify where and how my verses were being born. It helps me to dip into the river of my sweet reminiscences that incessantly runs thru` my mind! Thus, I am able to remember the whole atmosphere of every event at once!
Andy Williams - Free As The Wind https://youtu.be/-oJNeFUhMcQ
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A: You see, it`s very, amazingly clever!
S: Summing up! I feel no pity of our having met each other in Lesbos. I haven`t been disappointed yet! Se ya! I`m going out on a date with my Muse!
A: Your girlfriend if I dare ...
S: Well, I like that ... She is my notebook which I use to type my poems! So to say, I`ll go to work! (reciting)
ταῖσι [δὲ] ψῦχρος μὲν ἔγεντὀ θῦμος,//πὰρ δ' ἴεισι τὰ πτέρα ... But their heart turned cold and they dropt their wings. (H.T.Wharton)
Halt, please! To where are you going now?
Why have you been with me so cunning?
Tell me where is your edge and brink?
Where is our berth we`ll rest in piece?
CHORUS: NO DOUBT THAT COMMUNICATION WITH THE LITERARY CELEBRITY REQUIERED A LOT OF EFFORT AND STRAINED EARS OF OUR ALCAEUS. IN HIS EMAIL TO HIS MATRON, HOWEVER, JUST TO IMPRESS HER AS HE SUSPECTED HER AT BEING NOT TOO RESPECTFUL TO HIM(!), HE REPORTED THAT HE MADE ACQUAINTANCE WITH FAMOUS WOMAN POET SAPPHO WHO DESCENDED (!) TO HIS PERSON AND GENEROUSLY CAST PEARLS OF HER RARE TALENT BEFORE HIM. HE DIDN`T FORGET TO MENTION THAT SAPPHO CONSIDERED HIS COMPANY EXCLUSIVELY USEFUL FOR HER CREATIVE WORK. IN THE RECIPROCAL MESSAGE HIS SPOUSE, HOWEVER, NOTED THAT SHE QUESTIONED THE CULTURAL, SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL WEALTH OF HIS NEW BI ... SORRY SL ...ACQUAINTANCE. SHE DIDN`T FORGET TO MENTION THAT SHE DOUBTED THAT HIS COMPANY COULD EVER BENEFIT ANY PERSON. SO LATER HE TRIED TO AVOID OF TOUCHING THAT HOT SUBJECT.
FAREWELL Act 3
MEANWHILE the poetess was about to leave for Sicily and decided to celebrate that occasion.
SAPPHO: Now I am crazy and unintelligible. `Obscure` is the right word to express my feelings.
ALCAEUS: Honestly, I have no idea why we came here, to that port tavern instead of our going to a first-rate restaurant in downtown.
S: You seem to never ever have ideas! Just think, do I really need a restaurant`s dull? Flattery of a maitre d', starched tablecloths? My place is here, in that seaside tavern!
A: Just look who are sitting here!
S: They must be the pirates, smugglers, longshoremen! So what?
A: A pretty go! I don`t like it. One of them is staring at me.
S: Never mind! He simply has recognized me! (waving her hand to a complete stranger).
A: What if these hooligans and drunkards would start molesting ....
S: I know you gonna defend me!
A: What strange things you are, poets!
S: Don`be afraid, you`d better remember what we are here for. Adieu, my companion! To your health! I`m leaving tomorrow night!
A: I will miss you, Saph. Really!
S: I can`t help it. I`ll have to leave for Syracuse. Cheers, partner!
A: I`m afraid you have had one too many!
S: Relax! I know my draught, I mean when I have had enough ... (Sniffing and pointing out to the bowl wine of Phalernum): Ἕλθε, Κύπρι,//Χπρυσίασιν ἐν κυλίκεσσιν ἄβραισ// συμμεμιγμένον θαλίαισι νέκταρ οἰνοχόεισα `Come, goddess of Cyprus, and in golden cups serve nectar delicately mixed with delights`... What rough fresh wine! I must really remember this event! The Pleiades, fair Moon, intoxicated mob, your sad smile. I feel a concentration of vice in the air! A sea breeze! And a new Eve! The eve of my departure!
A (timidly): It`s time to go, isn`t it?
S (pushing Alcaeus back to his chair): I feel that gestalt of our meeting hasn`t been over yet! I feel like doing something. Oh, I see, it`s likely because of ...(reciting)
Your silence! No words I`m hearing.
Keep silence! Silence hides your force!
Keep silence! May the night effluvium
Be aired by the fog of your intoxicating rose!
A: Well done! You are so brilliant at poems! I envy ...
S: These verses have been born right here, 20th June, 1:00 p.m., in that port tavern. Let`s go, satellite!
A: Where to?
S: To outer space, cosmos! I`m kidding! Shall we dance, eh? Farewell to thee, my sweet companion! Farewell to thee, Greece, I`m leaving for Italy! Farewell to thee, my dear Aegean sea!
This Man (Aftos O Antropos Αυτος ο ανθρωπος). Sung By Valya Somarakis (Βαλια Σωμαρακη) https://youtu.be/uCAQ4CDwIMk
Greek Music - Greek Goddess dancing Zeibekiko!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Mu6jynJ_g
P.S. From Sappho`s LYRIC DIARY entitled `THE TEMPTATION` dedicated to Mr. A - Epigraph: `Bendita el amor, te quita y te da...` (`Love is a bandit that takes and gives ...`)
Shall I forget a stormy moment
Of an inescapable phenomenon?
Your fateful glance,
A sudden, mute appeal of your tin arms!
My enemy, my soul`s gracious host,
Sweet passion is of yore a vice,
We are hung o`er an abyss, lost!
We hasten to fall down in it, that`s right!
The other day you were a serious giant,
A connoisseur of Ars Amandi ...
Today you as a son of bitch
Seeks for the shelter on my tits!
But, on the other hand, I bet!
Why must you (having your hot mouth)
Rot on your conjugal cold bed
While lying side by side your spouse?!
Sappho and Alcaeus - Picture by Sir Lawrence AlmaTadema
Oh who you, my uncomprehending?
Now you`re honey, now devastating!
Do have a heart, with me be always nice!
Feel sympathy for my poor fate!
Though, frankly speaking, there`s no vice
You wouldn`t have experienced yet!
Farewell! I drained love to the lees.
I sated passion that you`d granted.
You`re no more a secret, darling!
I woudn`t stand for your caprice!
There`s another sweet temptation,
Another gust, another stretch!
Adieu! My funny sweet obsession,
I`m sorry about you, I`ve blenched.
THE END
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