Patrick Comerford
As meteorologists calculate the seasons, we have come to the end of summer this evening, and autumn begins tomorrow.
TS Eliot’s ‘East Coker,’ the second of his Four Quartets, ends with the words: ‘In my end is my beginning.’
But it opens with the lines:
In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation …
In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane …
…
Wait for the early owl.
In the opening verses of the Book of Revelation, Saint John is in a cave in Patmos when he hears the words: ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ παντοκράτωρ (Revelation 1: 8).
How do we begin our beginnings?
In Alice in Wonderland (Chapter 12), the White Rabbit put on his spectacles.
‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked.
‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’
Where are our beginnings?
And where are our ends?
There is a signboard with two notices at the same place at the entrance to or exit from the beach at Platanias, east of Rethymnon, where I have spent weeks on end over the years.
On one side, the sign reads: Αρχή Ακτής, Beginning of the Beach.
On the other side, the sign reads: Τέλος Ακτής, End of the Beach.
The Greek Ακτής (aktís) on that sign on the beach in Platanias might be translated more literally as ‘Shore’ rather than ‘Beach’, and perhaps the word Παραλία is used more often for beach in Greek
In some ways, those signs also came to symbolise my regular visits to Rethymnon since the 1980s, the beginning and the end of holidays in a part of Greece that is now so like to me.
Each day usually includes a stroll by the town beach beside the old Venetian harbour, or along the long stretch of white sands along the shore at Platanias, enjoying the sunshine, the blue skies and the deep blue sea. And so it was when I returned to Rethymnon – and to Pavlos Beach in Platanias – three months ago.
The Greek word αρχή (archí) on that beach sign in Platanias means not just start but head or chief – the beginning or source or first authority in something. It gives us many word in Greek that easy to understand in English, such as αποξαρχής (apoxarchís, ‘from the beginning’) and αρχέτυπο (archétypo, ‘archetype’).
It is also related to many words we are familiar with in the English language, such as:
• archaeology (αρχαιολογία), first used in English in 1782 for talking scientifically about our beginnings;
• archipelago (αρχιπέλαγος, archipelagos), or the chief sea, or head of the sea;
• architect (αρχιτέκτονας, architektonas), the chief builder or chief carpenter, and first used in English in the 1560s for master builder or director of works.
The Greek word τέλος (telos) on that beach sign in Platanias is also familiar in the English language in words such as:
• telescope (τηλεσκόπος, teleskópos), meaning seeing to the end or far-seeing, from the Greek words τῆλε (têle, afar) and σκοπέω (skopéō I look at). In a similar way, a bishop is an ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos) or overseer, someone who looks over or after the people.
• telephone (τηλέφωνο, telephono), sound or words from the end or from afar, from the Ancient Greek words τῆλε (têle, afar) and φωνή (phōnḗ, voice or sound).
• telegram (τηλεγράφημα, telegráphima): the suffix comes from the ancient Greek -γραμμα (-gramma), from γράμμα (grámma, written character, letter, that which is drawn), and from γράφω (gráphō, to scratch, to scrape, to graze).
Reading signs in another country and another language requires more than literal translations.
The hundreds of nails stuck into one old poles in Crete may mystify many a first-time visitor to Crete. But they remain from old notices pinned or nailed to any available space as soon as someone dies, but removed after the funeral.
Death, denial and a white seashore are images that remind me of the poem ‘Denial’ (Άρνηση) by Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971), first published in 1931 in his collection Turning Point (Στροφή, Strophe).
Seferis received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963. After the colonels’ coup in 1967, however, he went into voluntary seclusion and many of his poems were banned, including the musical versions written and arranged by the composer Mikis Theodorakis.
‘Denial’ came to be the anthem of resistance to the colonel and was sung by the enormous crowds lining the streets of Athens at the poet’s funeral in September 1971. He had become a popular hero for his resistance to the regime.
Άρνηση
Στο περιγιάλι το κρυφό κι άσπρο σαν περιστέρι διψάσαμε το μεσημέρι· μα το νερό γλυφό.
Πάνω στην άμμο την ξανθή γράψαμε τ' όνομά της· ωραία που φύσηξεν ο μπάτης και σβήστηκε η γραφή.
Mε τι καρδιά, με τι πνοή, τι πόθους και τι πάθος, πήραμε τη ζωή μας· λάθος! κι αλλάξαμε ζωή.
‘Denial’ (translated by Edmund Keeley and Phillip Sherrard)
On the secret seashore
white like a pigeon
we thirsted at noon;
but the water was brackish.
On the golden sand
we wrote her name;
but the sea-breeze blew
and the writing vanished.
With what spirit, what heart,
what desire and passion
we lived our life; a mistake!
So we changed our life.
Previous word: 45, democracy, δημοκρατία
Next word: 47, apocalypse, ἀποκάλυψις
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
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