Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 11:36:38 -0800
From: Winter Swimmer <hyperlex@hol.gr>
Organization: Winter Swimmers
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek,rec.arts.poems.soc.culture.europe,alt,pagan,alt.polyamory
CC: hyperlex@hol.gr, hesperos@netcom.com, lstango@earthlink.net,
        gates@gates.demon.co.uk
Subject: MUSE of SENSUAL INNOCENCE: "Maria Nefeli"  (of ODYSSEUS ELYTIS) 
"Maria Nephele"
by Odysseas Elytis
Selected English translations (with Comments)
 

In contrast to much of the Western Christian ideas of innocence, often associated with so-called "renunciation", the Muse of the Greek poet ODYSSEAS ELYTIS (expressed in his book "Maria Nephele") is a Priestess of Ecstasy that goes beyond Hedonism, into the Innocence of Sensuality BEFORE the FALL  (from Paradise).  There is no 'split' between the Mind and the Body, no
restriction to erotic imagination, and absolutely no alienation, in her Being. (Maria was also a real person, who inspired Elytis as a muse).
 

-Winter Swimmer
 
 




1) MISCELLANEOUS QUOTES


| Children and grand-children of Renunciation
|   are all of them bastards(page 38).

 (paidiA ki engOnia tis apArnisis
   EInai Ola tous bAstarda").
 




| Maria Nephele lives in the antipodes of Morality
| she is full of Ethos.
| When she says 'I will sleep with so-and-so'
| she means the will murder History once more...

 (i MarIa nefEli zei stous antIpodes tis eethikEEs
  EInai Olo EEthos.
  Otan lEei 'tha koimoithO m'aftOn,
  ennoEI oti tha skotOsei akOmi mia forA tin istorIa...)
 

[NOTE: Instead of the Christian/monogamous 'ideals', the nature of
 Maria Nephele is "polyamorous", like the Goddess Aphroditee
 (Venus) who had countless lovers. However, her polyamorous
 nature is not 'greedy hedonism', but profoundly revolutionary
 and capable of changing History. Her erotic ecstasy 'murders
 History', i.e. changes the 'established order' of the World.]



[...]

| Maria Nephele is undoubtedly
| a sharp(-cutting) girl
| a true menace of the future   (p. 45)

 (I marIa nefEli anamfisvItita
  EInai korItsi oksY
  alethinEE apeilEE tou mEllondos)

[...]

| Maria Nephele goes forward
| redeemed from the despicable concept of the Eternal Cycle

 (i marIa nefEli pAei brostA
  lytromEni apo tin apechthEE Ennoia tou aiOniou kYklou)

[NOTE: The 'Eternal Cycle' is (probably) what the 'traditional'
Occult Theories teach. There is no escape from this Cycle as
long as 'Occult Theories' are used conservatively and negatively.]

| and through her mere existence
| finishes-off half-human people.

 (kai mOno me tin YparksEE tis
  apoteleiOnei tous misOUs anthrOpous).

[NOTE: The "half-human" people here, refers to alienated people
 who have lost their humanity (or half of it). Maria Nephele
 'finishes them off' meaning that her Glow annihilates them.]
 



2) "The Song of Maria Nefeli"
************************

|"This girl is a shame"
| shaking their heads, they say
| Supposedly crying for me
| don't they let go, of me

[NOTE: Everybody thinks she's 'lost' or 'irredeemable'.
 Yet... her Purity is Transcendent, Divine Sensuality.
 Like all muses, she 'cant be understood, nor caught'.
 The way to deal with her is to 'let her be'. The Poet
 knows this, becoming enchanted by her, as his MUSE.]
 

| In the clouds I take strolls
| like beautiful thunder
| whatever I give or take
| becomes rain

[NOTE: The 'gratuitousness' of Maria's Grace refuses to
 comply with the narrow-minded 'give and take' ideals
 of alienated Love: The equation of Love to Ecomonics.
 She gives herself completely, and demands everything.
 Ecstasy knows no bounds, and benefits all, like rain.]
 

| Hey you guys, watch me close
| I cut from both sides now
| in the mornings I hardly speak (*)
| and swear upon 'Virgin Maries'

| and the evenings wherever I crawl
| in the grass of anyone's (garden)
| you may think I'm 'lance-fighting'
| droungou-droungou-drou

[NOTE: She 'hardly speaks' meaning 'you can't even talk to her'.
 It's not her 'obligation' to be 'polite' or 'communicative'.
 If you talk to her when she doesn't want to talk, she'll
 just tell you to 'fuck off', or 'insult the Virgin Mary',
 (as Greek insults sometimes do, "...tin Panagia sou").]
 

| I know nothing of 'joy'
| and I step over sadness too
| Like the angel I turn and swirl
| swirl over the edge of the cliff

[NOTE: Alienated dualities of 'positive' and 'negative', such
 as good/bad, joy/sadness have no ultimate value for her.
 She attempts to live dangerously through love, like an
 'angel at the edge of the cliff'. Yet... she falls not!]

(Greek originals omitted here for brevity. See page 49).



"A naked body is the only (possible) extension
 of the imaginary line that unites us with mystery"

 (Ena sOma gymnO EInai i monadikEE proEktasi
  tis noitEEs gramEEs pou mas enOnei me to mystEErio).
 

(aphorism, at end of page 104).

[...]
 

"When you hear 'ORDER', it smells of human meat!'

(aphorism, at end of page 108).



 

3) "SPEECH on PURITY"  (p. 65)
****************************

And I add: Your shadow
is a very bad counsel

Always walk

under the vertical Sun

"Without boundaries, without bounds (or terms)"

Because... MesDammes et Monsieurs,

what the swallow-birds attribute to us

-the Spring we did not Bring-

is precisely our 'Purity'.
 

NOTE: The liberation of the senses is useless and alienated,
 if it is restricted only to closed dark rooms, or bound
 by rules, terms, regulations, restrictions of any kind.
 Innocent Sensuality needs no such things, and fears not
 the light of the Sun. One's 'shadow' is very bad advice;
 Dark Gods are obsolete; The Sensual Maiden is Light. ]


Advice for... Christians and Saints, can also be found:

(p.77)

[....]

It would be supreme Wisdom if Saints were to reconcile
themselves with their bodies
and hear again the Speech of the Angels falling
like thin drizzling rain of the Spring
at a time when all kinds of Knowledge is burning...

[....]

With my BEAUTY
I shall make _obsolete_ the Concept of a 'Book'!
I shall invent the New Flowers
and I shall give birth from my guts
and I shall crown as 'king' in the crutch of my legs
the PUBLIC ROSE.

From THIS shall flow the Wind
of True Innocence
where FEW humans shall survive
however all the birds will
be picking on the nipples of my breasts

[....]



 

4) "THE ETERNAL BET" (p. 112, last poem & conclusion)
************************************************

(the bet is...)

 (1)
THAT one day you shall bite unto the New Lemon
liberating vast quantities of Sun from within it

 (2)
THAT all the currents of the Seas
suddenly enlightened will demonstrate
that you elevate the Sea to the Ethical Level

 (3)
THAT even in your death, you will again be
like Water in the Sun
becoming cold by instinct.

[....]

 (6)
THAT all the world's callousness shall become stone
hegemonically on which you shall sit
holding an obedient bird in your palm

(7)
THAT you alone, in the end, will be assigned
(a throne) slowly into the Majesty
of the Dawn and the Sunset.

(END of BOOK)
 

[NOTE: This powerful, yet simple poem indicates the Vision
 of the Revolutionary Muse, not the 'christian maiden' but the
 Pagan Priestess, of Joy and Justice united.
 There is no doubt that her Compassion will one day win
 over callousness and un-compassionate cruelty. The
 liberation of the senses is also the liberation of Man.]
 

5) "The PRIMAL PARADISE"






(c) Ikaros Publishers, Athens, Greece.
 

Translations and Notes by George A. Stathis (c) 1997.