Thanks for your help, Palαύρα. Of course. Λιανίζω occurs in the opening sentence of Πιλάλα:-
Μητέρα:
Αντύπααα! Να μι το ξαναπώ!
Θαρρείς πως θέλει πολύ να ‘ρθει ο Παππούς σου και να σε λιανίσει!!
Άμε κακομοίρη μου τη τσικουδιά στο καφενείο γιατί αλίμονο σου..
The translation might then be:-
O thin-vibrating golden chord, drawn taut upon the air....
A friend, a professor who is publishing an Anthology of Greek Literature with his own translations, has asked if I would render into English rhyming couplets the Hymn and Lament for Cyprus (1974) by Ritsos.
So far I have completed Cantos 1 and 2. This is my attempt:-
Άσμα 1
Ο sweet and bitter island, I try to voice your pain,
O island sore-oppressed, your humble servant I remain.
You are the heartbeat of the sea, a flower-laden bower;
Can double, treble savages your lovely bloom deflower?
How haplessly the sorrowing fish drift aimless in your sea,
The while the gambling infidel decides your destiny.
Take courage! youngest daughter ours, from whom we now are born,
Hymn to life, lament for life, and bell on Easter morn!
Άσμα 2
O thin-vibrating golden chord drawn taut upon the air
A songbird trilling smiles and joy midst people everywhere.
And now how they've entwined you in a blood-bespattered skein--
Our anger sharpened in its sheath amid our grief and pain!
And, chanting the Trisagion, that figure pure of harm
received a spray of bullets then instead of bay and palm.
And from afar he raises high the great paternal hand
to bless the blackened bread of those forced from their native land.
Να τα διορθώσεις προφανώς ελεύθερη είσαι.
