Dionysis Savopoulos: Four songs

The word of Demosthenes
Even if I were to get out of this prison, no one will be waiting for me.
The streets will be empty and my city more foreign.
The coffee shops will all be closed, and my friends will all have gone abroad.
The wind will be blowing me away, even if I were to get out of this prison.

And the sun will go to sleep on the ruins of Olynthos
my friends and my enemies will look like mythical things
The rhetors and the crooks will stand frozen
beggars, concubines and prophets will stand frozen

I will stand in front of the gate, blankets under my armpit
and moving my head slowly, I shall greet the guard.
Without will, without God, like a king in an ancient drama
I will say the word and the letter; I will stand in front of the gate.

Music, Lyrics: Dionysis Savopoulos. From the album Dirty Bread, 1972.

Vietnam, yeah, yeah
In Vietnam, they 've set the rice on fire, they 've set the rice on fire.
In Saigon, you could not live
the air was not enough to live on.

Now, hidden in the river, you breathe
Fo Minh Chi, you breathe
through a straw, through a straw.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....

The weather would have been beautiful in the forest,
would have been beautiful in the forest
if leaves did not go deaf from the explosions
if the sun didn't freeze from the terror
Hey!
if the children did not eat garbage
if the rain did not set huts to fire
the weather would have been beautiful in the forest.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Fo Minh Chi, what would you really do.
what would you really do,
if the children did not eat garbage,
if the rain didn't set huts to fire?
Ah!
You would take your girl for a stroll,
holding hands, Fo Minh Chi,
you 'd stroll in the forest holding hands.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Music, Lyrics: Dionysis Savopoulos. From the album Truck, 1966.

Our old friends
Don't tell me, our old friends -- don't tell me --
have gone forever.
Don't! I've learned it by now
the old books, the old songs
have gone forever.

The days that hurt us have gone
the days that hurt us have become
toys in children's hands.

Life changes without caring about your melancholy.
The time comes when you must decide whose side are you on
and who you stand against.

The old ideas, the old loves, the screams
are gone forever
they have become toys in children's hands.

This moment is beautiful. Should I say it again?
It is beautiful. Let me speak to you.

I see fires in ports, in stations
and I am with you.

When our world burns,
when the bridges behind us are cut off,
I will be there
to remind you
of the old days.

Music, Lyrics: Dionysis Savopoulos. From the album Truck. 1966.

What use are your songs?
What use are your songs?
They never tell the truth.
The people suffer and go hungry
and you keep on with the same fairytales.

What use are your songs?
They are too sugary
they are fit for candy-fed kids
but not for me.

Lyrics: Dinos Christianopoulos
Music: Dionysis Savopoulos
From the album Ten years of songs, 1975.