Γιατί και το τραγούδι το φορτώσαμε με τόσες μουσικές που σιγά-σιγά βουλιάζει / We’ve loaded even our song with so much music that it’s slowly sinking…
George Seferis said : “Γιατί και το τραγούδι το φορτώσαμε με τόσες μουσικές που σιγά-σιγά βουλιάζει
…κι είναι καιρός να πούμε τα λιγοστά μας λόγια γιατί η ψυχή μας αύριο κάνει πανιά” / We’ve loaded even our song with so much music that it’s slowly sinking… and it’s time to say our few words because tomorrow our soul sets sail.”
In 1942, while exiled in Cairo during the dark days of WWII, the poet George Seferis wrote, Γιατί και το τραγούδι το φορτώσαμε με τόσες μουσικές που σιγά-σιγά βουλιάζει (“Because we’ve loaded even our song with so much music that it’s slowly sinking”). He wasn’t attacking melody itself; he was exhausted by the empty noise, the heavy ornamentation, and the pretensions that obscured the simple, painful truth of survival. He wanted to strip away the excess to “speak simply” before his soul set sail.
Today, I feel that same sinking feeling, but for a different reason. It’s not art that is being weighed down, but our daily dignity.
Every time I see another local Post Office close its doors or a bank branch shut down in our neighborhoods, I feel we are being stripped of something essential. These aren’t just administrative changes; they are vital lifelines for our communities. By removing them, the system is slowly diminishing the respect that hardworking Greeks have earned through sweat and blood over decades.
We have struggled to build a nation worthy of our children, a place of stability and connection. When the state and its institutions withdraw from our towns and villages, they treat our history and our efforts as burdens to be cut away in the name of efficiency. We must speak our “few words” of protest now, because stripping away our services is stripping away our right to live with dignity and to be respected.
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