Zacharias Papantoniou

“ The Malediction of the Pine
1
You have cut down the pine, Yannis
But why? Why?”
“It's the wind that whispers...” Yannis said to himself
and he walked on.
Stones and pebbles get hot, and the heath
is blazing,
He must find a spring, small
a tiny stream.
Under the sun's fire, in the middle of the fields
there a bush...
Yannis lies down underneath to find
a little shade.
But the bush gathers up its branches,
it goes away!
“Then I will never be able to rest, said Yannis.
But why? Why?”
2
—Yannis, where do you want to go like this? ”

“ The wolf missed nothing of all that. The wind brought him the odour of the wild animals that were fleeing. He even saw the pawprints of some and nodded his head.
“I've not come for you, would you believe it, he said. I'm looking for some good food. You're worth nothing to a wolf who sees three thousand sheep in his dreams! And he continued on his way.
His hunger was growing. His thirst for blood even more. He sharpened his teeth; they cut like the best knife. He was ready.
Among the white sheep, he had now started to dream of a black one in the middle. ”

“ He saw the overhanging rocky slopes, the pine tree plantations and the upright fir tree, and then he felt a strong urge to go somewhere else; to see new places far away up high.
For some days he has been thinking about going up to a very high spot to gaze at the sun plunging into the sea.
“What can we see from that rock standing up there? Maybe the sea, he said to himself... maybe towns, villages with their bell towers... What a strange rock! How it stands erect! Has anyone already climbed up there?” ”

“ Happy are the mountains that grow not old
In summer all green and in winter snowed over
They wait for the spring, and sweet summer clover
The sun buds the branches, green trees unfold
This brings out the herds and the young Vlachs
playing their flutes
The song doesn't grow old! Old Fotis has aged but his voice has stayed light as in his youth. If only that front tooth hadn't been missing! ”

“ All these years, and he has never been in court. If all the breeders could be like him! How he protects the trees, old Athanase! If you see a goat in a dream which gives water, you know that it's not one of his. ”

“ Phanis saw it first. He's the first to have seen the splendours of the earth and sky, he's showing them to the other children: the setting sun, the clouds racing across the sky, the star reflected in the little stream. ”

“ The resin followed a notch and dripped into an expressly hollowed-out bowl in the ground between the pine roots.
All of this massacre for the resin, for the few drachmas that the Yeusois would put into their haversack if they sold it.
The stripped pines die in a short time. They're blown down by the first gust of wind or they dry up because they have no more sap.
They understand their end is near, but nevertheless they sing; they sway and rustle like the others, the healthy pines. ”

“ As she said her goodbyes, to her mother, brother, her family, all the descendants of old Athanase were crying. The tears flowed abundantly. That's the two rivers that Aphrodo had seen in her dream!
Aphrodo kissed Lambros for a long time. Then she kissed the children too, just as she had Lambros; she kissed Phanis and Dimos on both cheeks, she kissed Andreas, Foudoulis and Costakis. ”

“ So he threw the stone with all his might.
The stone hit the dog on the backbone. The dog whined, threw himself on the stone which had fallen, bit it furiously as if to eat it up, took a step backwards and once again rushed forward.
But as he saw the child still with a stone in his right hand, ready to hit him a second time, he changed his mind.
We all fear retaliation. The dog had in front of him a child who was fighting for his life. ”

“ Doing what they did is what we call a community.
Will they succeed in the same way with all the rest? Will they be able to work, each one for the others, and the others for each one? Then their small community will become an example for many others. So they raise their glasses and drink to their good health.
—I drink this wine to the good health of today's chef, said Costakis raising the can of water.
—I drink this raki, said Andreas raising his flask full of water, to the health of all the friends who cooked with me.
—I drink all the fountain to the health of the community, said Phanis. ”

“ Bathing Of all the children the one who loves water the most is Panos. He sits under the fountain naked and bathes. If he finds a tank on the road, he's capable of undressing and diving into it.
Mr Stephan called him Dipper-Panos.
The Dipper, isn't that a bird that goes mad for water? If he hears water flowing, he whistles in his cage. And if Panos hears water, he jumps for joy.
As soon as he heard we would go to the mill for flour, how excited he was! ”

“ However, this evening Phanis doesn't see them.
He's in such a state that he remembers a thousand and one things. They come to mind all at the same time: the games he played, the courses he had last year, a fruit he cut and ate when he was little; a nest he'd found... Everything coming and going in his head, like ants in a nest. His head is buzzing.
His eyelids are burning and swollen. He really wants to sleep.
At last sleep came. This time it was deeper. Phanis will have slept for at least five or six hours. He felt in his sleep that he was cold, but he couldn't get up. ”

“ No, he won't sacrifice him, not even at Aphrodo's wedding. What if he's disobedient; anyway he knows how to goand hunt scents, he knows how to find the unspoiled bush.
Old Athanase has him in his heart. It seems that one day he will make him his bellwether! ”

“ No bird passed over without settling on its top.
Drops of its resin were like amber, its murmuring that of a river, its coolness tended the injured.
It seems that in its trunk there slept a fairy; that's what they say. Nowhere was there a pine so big; the oldest people remember it. Even Grandpa sat in its shade.
Up until one year when Yannis from Yeuse came, and he made a cut with an axe for the resin. And the year after he cut it once more. And as he had taken resin for two years, Yannis began to count all the wood he would have if he cut it down completely. ”

“ They imagined a dog who would play with them, who would watch over them and be a guard. They immediately began to give him a name, to call him Pisto, Skopo, Flox, as if he were there in front of them.
—If we'd had it yesterday, the three hens and the poor village cock would have survived!
But while they were talking, there was the other cock, the one they had brought with them, coming out of the bushes.
He seemed to say “But you've got a cock! Can't you see me?” And he strutted about like no other. All of the Green Wood, the whole world seemed to belong to him. ”

“ From there Andreas looked around the place, upwards.
“Evidently, he said, Phanis will not have gone from here downhill. He will have gone up towards the summits, I know. So that's where we're going to go.”
They advanced between the beech trees and the oaks, without any path, themselves opening the way, which should lead them to where Phanis is. And which way was it?
They arrived on top of wild, bare precipices. These precipices fell away deeply and marked out the great water gap. Their voices echoed here. ”

“ At regular intervals a monk came into the church very slowly, as if he were just a shadow, and sat in a stall. There he remained standing, still, only moving his hand from time to time to make the sign of the cross. ”

“ Here high up the Roumelle is troubled. The waters spring up like furious children; it's only on the plain that it calms down. And while progressing towards the sea, it becomes tranquil and reflective. ”

“ Each cabin was one room made of branches, just enough to protect its occupants from the wind and rain.
—Andreas, said Costakis, how can we stay here?
Andreas started to laugh. “You'll see how you'll get to like it too! he said. I'm used to my cabin and wouldn't change it for a house”
Costakis eyed one hut then another, he went into all and paced around to find the best one, but none seemed good enough. Kaloyannis and Matthias ducked into the biggest hut and announced: “This is it, this one's ours!”
—Hey, get out of there, said Costakis, you've taken my house. ”

“ Their little hearts beat wildly, like a hare's.
They don't want to move forward. They walk with difficulty. At each instant, they expect to see a stone slowly straightening up.
When they arrived nearer and met up at the point, there was nothing. The stones here were stones like all the others. They looked at them carefully, they listened to them, but they remained just stones.
Then where's the Moor?
Instead of seeing the Moor, the children saw from up high a breath-taking scene.
Right down at the bottom, very, very far away, the vast wide sea waited for the sun, Phanis's sun. ”

“ But was it so easy for the hunter to see it? No. The beautiful fur of our fox which the hunters envy and which puts her continually in danger, is self-protecting. The colour is such that it merges in with the colour of the surroundings. ”

“ The hydraulic saw worked like a mill. Water fell from a pipe and by its own power it displaced a big straight saw. All the trunks which the woodcutters cut in the forest were brought here. The saw cut them and made lumber: planks, sleepers, beams.
What a large quantity of wood there was here! It had been stacked in great piles; continually the saw cut and continually the woodcutters brought more.
A small branch comes out of the ground and in forty, fifty years, it give these great beams.
What good things all this wood gives to men! We make houses out of it, boats, churches, bridges. ”

“ He goes to the mill by himself. He understands just like a person. He now knows where the children want to go. He's an animal that walks self-confidently on the edge of precipices. He sees in the dark, and remembers all the paths he's taken in the night.
And how his copper bell echoes in the ravines!
They had been walking for about an hour.
“Can you hear, boys?” said Costakis stopping. The others too stopped to listen. A noise reached their ears.
“Water!” said the children.
Costakis, still, cocked his ear, and as he heard so much water, he cried thrilled: “The Roumelle!” ”

“ Friend! another villager said to him, why are you trying to confuse matters. The thing is clear. The goat eats vegetation? Vegetation holds the ground and the stones on the hillside. If the greenery is eaten, the rains carry away the soil and the stones up to the torrent. The torrent swells, rushes down into the plain and devastates it. If the vegetation is at its place, nothing of the sort will happen. That's why your goat causes a flood. Your dream was right.
—It was exactly right this poor man's dream! After fire and the axe, the goat is the greatest enemy of the forest. ”

“ The Children Open the Roads A road is not made only for some. Some open it up and many benefit from it.
The road is for everyone. It is for the rich and the poor, for the master and the beggar.
With the road a mountain meets the next mountain, a city joins hands with another city. ”

“ You have a community?
—We are in the last class at college, but now that we have come to the forest and we live all together in the same place, we call our group a community. We have everything in common. ”

“ Is is easy to look after two hundred goats? Even just throwing stones here and there as Lambros does, calling, whistling, running to round up those recalcitrant animals, that would exhaust even an adult. ”

“ May the best one survive!
So he began the battle against two. He felt the teeth of the dogs like knives on his neck. But in turn, escaping, he sprang up to seize them in the same place. Rolling on the ground, one would have taken them for three dogs; or conversely, for three wolves.
The wolf had to fight against two. He needed to kill one of the two, so he'd be alone against the other, then he'd have to win against that one too, and then he would jump onto the sheep. ”

“ At the monastery At the high monastery of Saint-Elie, the monks stand in front of the door to the courtyard, and look into the distance. The plain and hills spread out downwards and further on the river Roumelle glistens like silver. From time to time a monk raises his right hand and points in the distance. ”

“ Why make a shepherd out of him?
They've come to beg his grandpa to let him go. But his grandpa was scowling. Then Dimitrakis opened Lambros's notebook.
—Look Grandpa, he said, see how he's learnt to write. He only started the alphabet twenty-five days ago. And now see where he is!
—What's all this? said the grandpa, these letters?
—Yes, that's his writing; he wrote all that recently, all by himself, his own hand and his own thoughts.
Old Athanase raised his head, lowered his white eyebrows and took the notebook in his hands. He looked at it upside down. ”

“ The poor little woman put down her small load on the ground and sighed; she sighed because of the effort and the years gone by.
She was tired of living, she said. And yet if someone came to take her burden and her life from her, she would leave neither one nor the other.
As long as one is upright, life is always good.
At the old woman's belt hung a little bottle which contained some oil.
—Where are you coming from, Ma'am?
—By her Grace! I have been to the chapel to light a lamp at the Holy Belt. ”

“ And he turned around to lean on the tree.
—Not here, said old Athanase, let's go into the cabin. And he asked for water and a cloth urgently.
—The children went weak at the knees, many went white; they hadn't ever seen an injured person. Suddenly all their joy of the day vanished.
—However Andreas didn't waste time. At such a time one reacts immediately. He picked up the lamp and shone it on old Athanase and the injured man so that they could go into the cabin. ”

“ The Young Travellers Climb up into the Mountains When they arrived on a ridge, a cold wind welcomed them. This wind had passed by each peak and each valley. They breathed in deeply.
Some little white-throated birds were flicking their tails in the bushes then flew away chirping. ”

“ The mule-drivers with their mules came last night and are waiting.
This morning the children loaded everything. When they saw the empty cabins, they felt a sort of sadness. They went up to the door, looked and said to themselves that they had lived quite a while in there.
The hour has come to leave their humble abodes. You would have said that these looked at them also as if they were people. ”

“ The Moor's Rock That day was the best of them all. They had never loved Phanis as much as today when they found him.
They are inseparable today. They all went together to see the water gush up from the rock; they went down to the plane trees altogether. Each one would have given his life for the others. ”

“ What was lacking with his letters, old Athanase had in his head. Nobody cheated him, but he cheated no-one either. His word was his bond.
When he goes down to the town – because he does go to the town once a year, at Easter – he takes up all the road and people turn to look at him with his stick. ”

“ They must teach Lambros! It's time. What's learnt is learnt; now, this evening.
“That's enough for this evening, Lambros, Phanis said to him. You can't learn it all at once. Now you have to read the paper on your own, and tomorrow we'll see how much you've remembered. ”

“ Old Athanase is a very rough sort. The day before yesterday, as Gkeka had chewed his kilt a little bit, he got a stroke of the stick. He's not one to play.
But the grandchildren don't play either; they go with the herd. Even small, Lambros leads two hundred goats. And that's not enough for him, now he reads a paper.
Does he at least play with the sheep? These don't play, they just graze. So Gkeka rebelled in order to come to the children. They can always shoo him away, but he's not leaving here. ”

“ On the banks on both sides plane trees profited from the water. Beside them other trees bent down to drink.
The river widened here to form a pool, on whose bed they could see even the smallest pebble. Elsewhere there were terraces of glistening stones. The water came down the steps making white waterfalls.
Hardly had they had time to look, when the children saw Panis get undressed and go into the water.
“No, no! They shouted to him; you'll get cold. Get out of there!”
Panos went in even further. He hit the water with his hands, splashed his body, stuck his head in the water. ”

“ The oldest monk, father Joseph, entered first, his back bent and his legs trembling. Despite his age he passed in front of all the icons and kissed them, one after the other, in the order of the saints, whispering the praises of each one. ”