Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Monday 6 July 2015

Ixnay!

.
Financial Chaos Looms After Greeks Reject Bailout With Resounding 'Oxi' Vote

"No" supporters celebrate with a Greek flag outside Parliament in Athens after Greek voters reject EU bailout in Sunday's referendum: photo by Petros Giannakouros/AP via Vice News, 5 July 2015
Athens

O shining and wreathed in violets, city of singing,
stanchion of Hellas, glorious Athens,
citadel full of divinity.

Pindar (518?-after 446 BC): Dithyramb 76, translated by Richard Lattimore in Greek Lyrics (second edition), 1960
 

A supporter of the “no” vote expresses her enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Germany’s economy minister said Greeks have “torn down the last bridges” to compromise. Photo: Petros Giannakouris /Associated Press / AP

A supporter of the “no” vote expresses her enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Germany’s economy minister said Greeks have “torn down the last bridges” to compromise: photo by Petros Giannakouris /Associated Press, 5 July 2015 


ταὶ λιπαραὶ καὶ ἰοστέφανοι καὶ ἀοίδιμοι,
Ἑλλάδος ἔρεισμα, κλειναὶ Ἀθᾶναι, δαιμόνιον πτολίεθρον.


Pindar: Dithyramb 76, text from The Odes of Pindar, including the principal fragments, ed. T.E. Page & W.H.P. Rouse, 1916


Greek referendum vote

Greeks celebrate in front of Greece's parliament building as early polls forecast a win for the "oxi," or "no," campaign in the Greek austerity referendum: photo by Christopher Furlong via Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2015


 Scenes of joy as Greece's 'No' voters celebrate victory #Greferendum: photo by Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP  via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 5 July 2015


Greeks said NO at the referendum: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via AFP Photo Department, 5 July 2015 
 

Greeks said NO at the referendum: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via AFP Photo Department, 5 July 2015 
 

Greeks said NO at the referendum: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via AFP Photo Department, 5 July 2015

Minister No More!

Yanis Varoufakis: The referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage

Like all struggles for democratic rights, so too this historic rejection of the Eurogroup’s 25th June ultimatum comes with a large price tag attached. It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution -– to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms.

Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.

I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum.

And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.

We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office. I shall support fully Prime Minister Tsipras, the new Minister of Finance, and our government.

The superhuman effort to honour the brave people of Greece, and the famous OXI (NO) that they granted to democrats the world over, is just beginning.

Yanis Varoufakis: Minister No More! from Yanis Varoufakis: Thoughts for the post-2008 world, posted 6 July 2015



After 'No' vote, Greek finance minister #Yanis Varoufakis quits #GreeceCrisis: image via Hindustan Times @htTweets, 6 July 2015


#Grexit I shall fully support PM #Tsipras, the new #FM & our Govt: #Yanis Varoufakis: image via ET Industry News @ET Industry News, 6 July 2015


#Varoufakis writes on twitter 'Minister no more': image via RT @RT_com, 6 July 2015
 

#Varoufakis resigns as Greek voters reject creditors' bailout terms: image via RT @RT_com, 6 July 2015


Greeks said NO at the referendum: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via AFP Photo Department, 5 July 2015 

Afterlife in Elysium

For them the sun shines at full strength -- while we here walk in night.
The plains around their city are red with roses
and shaded by incense trees heavy with golden fruit.
And some enjoy horses and wrestling, or table games and the lyre,
and near them blossoms a flower of perfect joy.
Perfumes always hover above the land
from the frankincense strewn in deep-shining fire of the gods' altars.

And across from them the sluggish rivers of black night
vomit forth a boundless gloom.

Pindar: Dirges 129 and 130, translated by Willis Barnstone in Greek Lyric Poetry, 1962




Crossing the River Styx: Joachim Patenier, 1515-24, oil on panel, 64 x 103 cm (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

6 comments:

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

No nays about it--Pindar would've been proud of his contemporary progeny.

TC said...

Pindar likely wouldn't have understood this post, as he was Theban.

Pig Latin was not spoken in Thebes.

The first fragment given here is one of three parts of
a dithyramb composed in the spring of 474 B.C.

In this dithyramb Pindar eulogised Athens for the part
she had lately played in the war against Persia.

In gratitude for the eulogy the Athenians presented
the poet with a gift of 10,000 drachmae (£400), and made
him their proxenus, or representative, at Thebes: Isocr. xv
166.

Later writers imply that the gift was an indemnity for
a fine of 1,000 drachmae, which the jealous Thebans inflicted
on their countryman for his praise of Athens: Aeschines Socr.
Ep. iv 3, Eustathius' Life of Pindar, and Tzetzes on Hesiod,
p. 104.

The first of these writers adds that in recognition of the eulogy,
a seated statue of Pindar, with lyre and scroll, was placed
in front of the Stoa Basileios at Athens.

TC said...

No -- I mean, yes, now you mention it, Vassilis -- old Indarpay might have been unable to suppress at least a small wrinkle of vicarious elation.

I mean... at those rates, noblesse oblige, n'est café?

Nora said...

γλαῦκ’ εἰς Ἀθήνας, as they say.

And can I just say, Tom, that if you'd asked for on-the-spot translations of igPay atinLay, I'd have found your classes much, much easier. Having spent (at least) one summer doing Pig Latin immersion as a child, Iway ouldcay eakspay itway inway ymay eepslay.

TC said...

Oorayhay, ethay ivineday Oranay otay ethay escueray!

Oneway allsmay ingthay, oughthay -- ifway e'reway oinggay otay ebay arryingcay owlsway otay Athensway isthay eekway, e'dway etterbay otay ebay uresay otay uffstay emthay ullfay ofway aperpay oneymay!

Iway eanmay, ethay oorpay ingsthay -- erribletay orfay eirthay endertay astricgay accommodationsway ofway oursecay, allway atthay irtyday aperpay, utbay illstay, it'sway orfay away oodgay ausecay... inway away ertaincay ayway... erhapspay...

Andway at'swhay ulytray onderfulway, ybay ethay ybay, ustjay etweenbay ethay otway ofway usway -- Iway owknay ethay allsway avehay earsway utbay illstay, ustjay ayingsay, erethay areway omesay ettypray umbday allsway -- Iway avehay
anway incessantway ommentcay-oxbay alkerstay owhay oesn'tday owknay Igpay Atinlay!

Aimsclay otay ebay ipolarbay, utbay ightmay ustjay ebay Ebanthay!

Allway ostspay erehay inway Igpay Atinlay omfray ownay onway!

Or as old Indarpay used to say, on the way to the bank, with the Athenian cheque balled up in his fist --

Ixnay on the Altsay, Please!

[NB: γλαῦκ’ εἰς Ἀθήνας = "Ixnay on the kabitz" -- Mencken, American Mercury, 1930]

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

AUSTERITY : GAME OVER

For them the sun shines at full strength -- while we here walk in night.