Live Encounters Greek Poets & Writers September 2026
The House in Salamina, poems by Iro Nikopoulou.
Translated from Greek by Aristi Trendel.
The House in Salamina
In memory of Miras and Nasou Nikopoulou
Mud, foundations, lavish meals and laughter
rooms high, with deep skies
slender, startled pines
shaggy forest brambles all around
children, dogs, seawater entwined
with stars in their palms, leaven
of the night—drizzle and fine salt
in the dazzle of Phaneromeni[1]
the sweetness of a life not yet revealed.
Now it lives all alone
in the reverie of dawn and dusk
within its heavy air
the hours slip in and out whispering
with the sun at its side
they whirl around the windowpanes
like garden bees
harvesting immaterial pollen.
Old conversations flare at dusk
humming with gentle passion
the fireplace crackles, fed by olive root
birds sing and through the night
the cypresses wrap themselves in their long shadows
forgotten words roost in the foliage
and the ever-wronged cats all around
faithful keepers of souls.
In the house of Salamina
on Sundays they wander
in their downy robes
its luminous absent ones
they gaze straight across to Perama,
behind the glass
half-closing their eyes
at the shimmer of the waters
beside Eleusis
they praise the purple of the geranium
resting in the northern flowerbed
the small-leaved ivy—oro di bogliasco—
hungrily suckling the walls
the evergreen privets
gleaming, impervious in the light
then they turn their backs to the sea
in the depths, beside the piano, Nabucco waits
to drink coffee with them at the low table
in transparent cups, with a slow motion
hovering, refracted in the light
below, you always hear the steady rhythm
of the wooden loom weaving the Threads.
Everything breathes quietly above the wave
the house with its square sunporch embrace
and all its faucets sleepless
for the drought that dawns
they smile faintly at Time
with the wisdom of rock.
Miracle in the ICU, ΑΩ Publishing, 2024
[1] Icon of Panagia Phaneromene: an icon of the Theotokos associated with the
discovery/revealing of her icon at a number of churches and monasteries of Greece.
The Backyard
Outside the trees resurrect the soil
deep down the roots
metabolize toxins
From afar comes
the persistent purring of a machine
the avenue and the tram
a kind of repetitive calm
Far back in the hippocampus
the morning voices of children lie low
the whistles the shouts
in the park
Today the day may pass without glory
its only gain the glittering rain
behind the windowpanes
and I safe behind
Dry
(Unpublished)
© Iro Nikopoulou
Iro Nikopoulou studied Painting and Stage Design at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She has presented numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and has published twelve books of poetry and prose. Her poems and short stories have appeared in anthologies in several European languages. A Spanish selection of her poetry, Acepciones de la Miranda, translated by José Antonio Moreno Jurado, was published in Seville in 2019. She has participated as an invited guest at numerous international poetry festivals.