The Gatsos Translation Project

On this page the Archive offers the text of all of the original lyrics of Nikos Gatsos. This has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Εκδόσεις Πατάκη / Patakis Publishers, the publisher of the collection Όλα τα τραγούδια (All the songs). The lyrics are arranged below, by title, according to the three major divisions of the 2018 edition of All the songs:

• • Τραγούδια με σειρά δισκογράφησης (Songs in order of recording)
• • Τέσσερα ενιαία έργα (Four stand-alone works)
• • Ενότητες στίχων που δεν έχουν δισκογραφηθεί (Sections of lyrics that have not been recorded)

The twelve songs contained in the album Η Παγωμένη Θεατρίνα (Icy Actress) (Menta Art Events) were released in mid-2021 and correspondingly now appear in the first division, of songs in order of recording, rather than in the third.

Of the four stand-alone works in All the songs, only two are represented here: Αμοργός (Amorgos), in fifteen excerpts, and Μέρες Επιταφίου (Days of the Epitaph), comprised of six songs.

(The other two stand-alone works, Θρήνος για τον Ιγνάθιο Σάντσιεθ Μεχίας and Η φάτνη, are omitted, as are several other lyrics, as they are translations made by Gatsos of the original work of others.)

Below, click on one of the headings and find your way to each of the songs, where you may read the text in Gatsos’s Greek and where you may also submit your own translation into another language. For an example, see the song Χάρτινο το φεγγαράκι (The moon is of paper).

This feature was created in order to promote engagement with the lyrics of Gatsos and with the modern Greek language. It is meant especially for language teachers and language learners. Soon you will be able to filter the translations and view only those made into a particular language or submitted by a particular translator or the like. For now, all posted translations exist side by side. Please note: the translations scroll horizontally!