oh (sparkling) sea (oh) my darling sea… take me down into you so i might drown
bereft of love, i want no more to live here, on dry land
but you, you lie there so ever-still, darling sea agleam, forever mirroring birds on high
but i, i am a wave.
…gentle calm waters…
oh (sparkling) sea darling sea, it’s me waiting this whole night through to be saved by you
let some tempest take me, fold me down into the darkest deep
but you, you lie there so ever-still, darling sea agleam, forever mirroring – outwardly – birds on high
but i, i am a wave.
A song by Marina Satti with lyrics by Lena Kitsopoulou
αχ θάλασσα θάλασσά μου εσύ… μέσα σου πάρε με για να πνιγώ
χωρίς αγάπη δεν θέλω εδώ να ζήσω στη στεριά
μα εσύ είσαι τόσο ατάραχη, θάλασσά μου γυαλί που καθρεφτίζεις πουλιά
μα εγώ είμαι κύμα.
…ήσυχα νερά…
αχ θάλασσα θάλασσά μου, εγώ για ένα θαύμα σου απόψε ζω
με μια τρικυμία να βυθιστώ μεσ’ στο μαύρο βυθό
μα εσύ είσαι τόσο ατάραχη, θάλασσά μου γυαλί που καθρεφτίζεις πάνω σου πουλιά
μα εγώ είμαι κύμα.
Translated for the love of it.
This is a 2024 song by Marina Satti that she dedicated to her father, who died that same year.
The music is by Marina Satti and Nikos Kodonas, with orchestration by Ermis.
The lyrics are by the actor, artist, director, and writer Lena Kitsopoulou.
The extraordinary shot of gulls gliding over glittering dark seas is drawn from the atmospheric music video Σtella produced and directed for her song “Nomad” (edited by Isi Charbila, with Fanis Dalezios of Dolce Films behind the camera). This shot was spliced, fragmented, glitched, and looped to be set in dialogue with Satti here.
Consider “agleam ⋮ bereft” alongside two other dubitanda – “listing ⋮ sorrow” and “whisper ⋮ waves” – to find three figures calling out to various seas (Aegean, Caspian, otherworldly), aching for loves (child or parent or spouse) beyond reach.
A triptych of longing (via Kitsopoulou and Cavafy and Səfərli):
waiting this whole night through… one ear listing always to the wind… whisper it, whisper, oh waves…
These three translations informed one another (you can spot the ways).
