from Οι τύψεις της θάλασσας (2020) [“The sea’s remorse”]; Καλοκαιρινό παλτό (2024) [“Summer coat”]
Translated from the Greek by Gigi Papoulias
The path of water
in memory of N.C.
Rain falls upon the names of old friends and loved ones
washing away the letters
The earth drinks them in like a sponge
Deep below ground, currents jumble them up
The names, now misspelled,
tumble into wells, dark and cold
You lean over to call out a name,
the echo replies with another
For years, you’ve stood at the edge of that well,
Margiola’s familiar lament on your lips,
tirelessly turning the handle
until the pail surfaces,
overflowing not with cool refreshing water
but with songs and laughter
from the Underworld.
Summer coat
She would complain to people on the street
about climate change
and how winter no longer exists
What about her heavy coat
the one she’s been working on for years
adorned with every color and pattern she could think of
with its bright white collar, crocheted entirely by hand
made to be worn on a freezing cold snowy day
When would she get to use it?
She put it on in July
when the temperature hit a record high
She admired herself in mirrors and shop windows
she paraded before the eyes of passers-by
and then she sealed it carefully away
in a wooden box
and buried it
deep
deep inside the earth.
Flying fish
I don’t know if it was a mistake
or if he deliberately mixed up
one half with the other
putting the feathered creature
in an aquarium
and the fish
in a birdcage
after he realized
that its soul
belongs to the genus
chelidonichthys.
Baptism
You had to grab hold of me
so I wouldn’t drown
as you plunged me
into the wellspring of the River Styx
You chose not to grab my heel
because the myth of Achilles and Thetis
came to mind.
The body has many parts
So many fingers and toes
You chose to hold on to
the index finger of my right hand
The finger that points to the sun
and to the sea,
the one that writes on foggy panes of glass
The finger that
pulls the trigger
Each time
Each time I embrace you
my arms begin to bloom
not with flowers that flourish
with abundance in spring
but with the buds of an almond tree
in the dead of winter, in the snow
That’s when my name becomes
Demophon and yours, Phyllis.
I gaze upon you
I gaze upon you
before a suspended sunset
and a hastened moon.
Where you once stood
now there’s ivy
Without stems and leaves
it casts a shadow
from only its roots
Where you once stood
there’s now a smoldering fire
melting the falling snow
You scratch at the earth
with your nails
then your fingers
and when they’re gone,
your teeth.
You find water, underground rivers
molten souls and fossilized dreams,
wounds that are unearthed
beneath cheap underwear
and unresolved love affairs.
You cover the roots
straighten the trunk
exhale a blast of air
toward the branches
How can I make you vanish
beneath underground seas?
Argyris Stavropoulos made his debut in 2010 with the poetry collection Συναντήσεις – Χαϊκού /Encounters – haiku. In 2018, he published his second collection, Αυτοεξόριστος εντός μου /Self-exiled within, which was awarded the Polydouri Poetry Prize. In the following years he published the collections Οι τύψεις της θάλασσας /The sea’s remorse (2020), and Καλοκαιρινό παλτό /Summer coat (2024), awarded the Techni Kilkis Poetry Prize. His work has also been published in literary journals in Greece and the US. He lives in Sparta but was born in Vassaras, Lakonias, a village on the hillsides of Mt. Parnonas, where he often goes to write.
Gigi Papoulias is a Greek-American translator based in Athens, with roots from the same Spartan village as the poet. She translates for the nonprofit Solomon, an award-winning media group of independent journalists in Athens. She studied Greek literature as a grant recipient at the University of Athens. A graduate of Boston College, she focused on Modern Greek Studies in her academic work. Her literary translations and fiction have been published in Waxwing, Lunch Ticket, Mayday, (δε)κατα and others. Her translation of Stavropoulos’ poem, “Vows”, is a ‘Notable Translation’, listed in the Best Literary Translations Anthology 2025.
World Poetry Review 