lexicon

some of my favourite Greek words (will keep adding to this, no doubt)


οικογένεια: (ee-ko-ye-nia) family
-οίκος: (ee-koss) house, home, household
-γένος: (yeh-noss) kin, birth


άχρηστος: (ah-christoss) worthless, useless
-α: (prefix) without
-Χριστός: Christ (your savior)


εφημερίδα: (e-fee-meh-ri-tha) newspaper
εφήμερος - ephemeros, literally "lasting only one day
-μέρα: (meh-rra) day

I love this word because the thought of a newspaper is quite banal, but the word for it in Greek is what the English language uses as 'ephemeral'...not too shabby eh?



θησαυρός: (thi-sahv-rohss) treasure
meaning a collection of things which are of big importance or value
again, a thesaurus is quite ordinary, but the meaning of the word in Greek refers to a treasure. beautiful.


αναίσθητος (ahn-ess-thi-toss)
-αν; without
-αἲσθησις: sensation
the origin of the English word 'anaesthetic' but also in Greek is used as a perjorative...for someone who is unfeeling/emotionless. A sophisticated insult!


νοσταλγία (noh-stal-yee-a)
-νόστος : returning home
-άλγος: pain

nostalgia describes a longing for the past, often idealised.

of course, this subject is something I think of almost on a daily basis, and it's a word quite close to my heart. I love that it still sounds the same in either language and the meaning, and nuance has (thankfully) survived into the English translation intact.



μελανχολία (meh-lan-cho-lee-a) melancholy:
(μέλας, melas, "black", + χολή, kholé, "bile"); a person whose constitution tended to have a preponderance of black bile had a melancholic disposition.



Palindrome (from wikipedia)
palin (πάλιν; "back") and dromos (δρóμος; "way, direction")

The actual Greek phrase to describe the phenomenon is karkinikê epigrafê (καρκινική επιγραφή; crab inscription), or simply karkiniêoi (καρκινιήοι; crabs), alluding to the backward movement of crabs, like an inscription which can be read backwards.

a wonderful Greek palindrome:

NIYON ANOMHMA MH MONAN OYIN
(Niyon anomima mi monan oyin)
'Wash your sins not only your face'

This is often inscribed on fountains, or baptismal fonts in Christian churches (famously at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and even in the United Kingdom too!) and has been around forever...love it!



συμφωνία (sim-foh-nee-a)
meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of vocal or instrumental music"
-συμ /συν: (prefix) meaning 'with' or 'together with'
-φωνή: sound

my heart stops when I hear this come up in everyday (Greek) conversation...someone asking another if they agree on something, to which (if they do) they reply: συμφωνώ (sim-foh-no)



that's just scratching the surface of this amazingly rich and complex language..hopefully you can begin to see why I love it so much.

17609

when I open the parcel
and lift out each item
I press my face
into their textures
....smell sunshine, your small hands
long dark hair and sad eyes
in the silk and cotton.

I think of you;
carefully, how carefully
folding each piece
of my former armour
in my last life
to send to me in my new life
which is so full
with very separate seasons
and skylines,
and then the salt crusts under
lower lashes
-because now I have Europe, but no you.

I catch glimpses of you still
in the looking glass,
first thing in the morning, or late at night
-in shop windows walking home
when my guard is down

Here there is no bleached sunlight
but still, small hands,
long dark hair and sad eyes
that live amid the folds of silk


and cotton.

hundreds and thousands...

Mama sent me a parcel recently with some of my summer clothes from Sydney...it was the first time I had worn these items since I left almost two years ago.

Included in the parcel were some of my favourite biscuits...



(tiny tiny Shakespeare book bound in leather the size of two matchboxes)...my favourite of the comedies; the magical forest of Arden, where anything is possible and true love prevails;

"loose but now and then a scattered smile, and that I'll live upon"




xo

on language and post-memory

Last week I had a dream in Greek.

I was showing my mother and grandmother around Jerusalem. This dream stuck with me because I have only dreamt in Greek a few times in my life and I don't know why after less than a week in Jerusalem it still remains so crystal-clear in my mind. I often find myself longing for it again, and the melancholy that goes with it.

I catch myself wishing with every ounce of my being that I was back there sitting in the shade, drinking coffee with Chrysoula on the Mount of Olives, I miss the dust, the light, the heavenly sound of the call to prayer every few hours followed by Christian church bells, walking back from the Jerusalem Hotel so late in the night through deserted labyrinthine streets, the sweet smoke from the narghile clouding up cafes, the marketplaces heaving with people, colours and produce. sigh.

I don't know why I dreamt in Greek. I have always had a longing towards Hellas, after wanting my whole life to visit there with my family; having these memories of a place I had never been to before but understood and felt deeply from my parents' stories growing up. They became in a way my own memories too.

(Gael said it best in 'the motorcycle diaries' as Che; 'how is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?' )

This summer I am going to do my best to avoid being seduced for too long by my crazy chaotic Athens and instead travel to Ioannina, Katerini and Thessaloniki to meet the rest of my family for the first time and finally see where my parents grew up. I also hope to record the story of my grandparents, whom I've met only once when they came to Sydney in 2000. They are living testemonies to the Asia Minor catastrophe in the 1920's and I so desperately want to document their story before it's too late.

I also hope my Greek (and my tan!) will improve. For some reason when it comes to speaking it now I freeze; I stumble and become embarassed and frustrated at my incompetence. Unless it's on the phone with my family in Sydney (where after a few minutes I become fluent and have a level of vocabulary that suprises both me & my father) ..I sound and feel like a complete fool and so uncomfortable speaking the language that, once upon a time when I started pre-school in Sydney, was the only language I could speak. It still remains the language that I turn to in my mind when English just cannot compete for depth, emotion and true expression.

I have been thinking about this for so long now, and it dissapoints me that I allow myself to be so self-conscious about it still. My dad jokes that I always speak amazing Greek when I am angry, and I agree, when I am angry, tipsy or dreaming; it's the fact that I'm in the moment and not thinking about it.   

Anyways, maybe being around my family for a few weeks will force me to speak and speak until it becomes second nature again. 

...maybe my grandfather will also teach me some phrases in Turkish eh?

sunday goodies..

Even though it's a long weekend I am working on Saturday and Monday at the library...but today? it was beautifully relaxing spent in the company of lovely friends.

I also acquired two things today which make me very happy; my beloved Alessi heart-shaped teaspoons were a surprise present from Mel..oh joy of joys! 

And a beautiful green summer dress which I'm sure I will be still be wearing 10 years from now.

Tonight there is nothing left to do but to have a shower, melt some dark chocolate add some cream and eat it with a spoon while watching Supernatural, perrrrrfect!

xo