# Funeral ode on the assassination of Ion Dragoumis



## Theseus (Sep 15, 2017)

What does this ode by Kostas Palamas mean on the assassination of Ion Dragoumis:

Λευκή ας βαλθεί όπου έπεσες, Κολώνα
(Πώς έπεσες, γραφή να μη το λέη)
Λευκή με της Πατρίδας την εικόνα
Μόνο εκείνη ταιριάζει να σε κλαίη,
Βουβή, μαρμαρωμένη να σε κλαίη!

I can roughly translate the first two lines as:

Let a white column be set up where you fell
(How you fell the written word cannot express it)
A white column with the picture of the Fatherland
Only that is sufficient to lament you
Dumb, cast in marble to lament you! 

Is this vaguely right?


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## Marinos (Sep 15, 2017)

I admire your spectacular changes of register, Theseus! :)
The second verse should rather be "no inscription should say how you fell", i.e. better not to mention that you were killed by Greek hands. Dragoumis, a fervent nationalist, was killed during the civil strife between Venizelos' and King Konstantinos' supporters. The same sentiment is expressed in the fourth verse: It only befits to Fatherland to mourn you, not to your compatriots who lost this right by committing fratricide.


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## Theseus (Sep 15, 2017)

As I've hinted elsewhere, Marinos, I try to read widely. One day it might be a pop song, another a piece of Greek literature. One day I listen to YouTube Greek with English subtitles: all to improve my knowledge.
What exactly does the line Λευκή με της Πατρίδας την εικόνα mean: 'white with the picture of the Fatherland' doesn't really make sense to me. Can you elucidate with greater precision?


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## Marinos (Sep 15, 2017)

I think, "a white (column), with the picture of the Fatherland engraved on it". Early twentieth-century Greek poetry, and perhaps especially Palamas, make frequent use of διασκελισμός (is there an English term?), i.e. phrases divided across verses, and repetitions (λευκή for κολώνα is found also in the first verse). Also, Fatherland or rather Motherland (strikingly similar to Turkish _ana vatan_) is a very common figure in this imagery, something like la République in pre-WWII France.


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## Theseus (Sep 15, 2017)

Thanks, Marinos. 'Anaphora' is the repetition of a certain word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines of writing/speech or most often poetry.' The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza is 'enjambment'.
Like you, I prefer the term motherland, native land or mother country. 'Fatherland' now has negative overtones.


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## Earion (Sep 15, 2017)

77A Queen Sophia Avenue, Athens


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## Earion (Sep 15, 2017)

Is it an ode? I would call it a funeral epigram.


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## Theseus (Sep 15, 2017)

It is properly a Νεκρική Ωδή: my mistake for the imprecision. :) Thanks for the photograph.


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## SBE (Sep 16, 2017)

I think some punctuation might be of help with the meaning: 
Λευκή ας βαλθεί όπου έπεσες, Κολώνα.
(Πώς έπεσες, γραφή να μη το λέη)
Λευκή, με της Πατρίδας την εικόνα.
Μόνο εκείνη ταιριάζει να σε κλαίη,
Βουβή, μαρμαρωμένη να σε κλαίη!

Λευκή, με της Πατρίδας την εικόνα= white; with the image of the motherland


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## Theseus (Sep 16, 2017)

Thanks, SBE.:)


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