Interpretation of “All these years a single breath” by Lavrentis Maheritsas
For the present entry, I am picking a piece from the works of Lavrentis Maheritsas. Lavrentis was at his peak before modern audiovisual technology became the norm, which means that it is hard to find any of his songs rendered in high quality output.
Compounding the problem, there are no excellent covers either, perhaps because contemporary singers recognise that they cannot produce a performance that will stand as an equal to the original material.
At any rate, here is the man in a solo live performance at some closed space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdoQ3VDzVU and here is an alternative done for national television https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqU8UMWgg08.
The lyrics are below, followed by my faithful translation of them, and further comments on what this song is about.
Τόσα χρόνια μιαν ανάσα
Ερμηνεία: Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας
Στίχοι: Λίνα Δημοπούλου
Μουσική: Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας
Ανάβω ένα τσιγάρο
απ'τα απαγορευμένα
Πάντα το σκασιαρχείο
αγαπούσα πιο πολύ
Ανάβω κι άλλο ένα τσιγάρο
Στη δουλειά και στο σχολείο
στης αγάπης την αρένα
μια απόδραση ζητούσα
και μια άτακτη φυγή
ώσπου φάνηκες εσύ
Πήραν φόρα οι μελωδίες
και του έρωτα οι χημείες
και γεννήθηκαν τραγούδια
κι ένα όμορφο παιδί
ούτε το'χα φανταστεί
Είναι τώρα που μετράμε
κάπου δυο δεκαετίες
και κανένας πια δε θέλει
να το σκάσει από κει
φτάνει δίπλα να είσαι εσύ
Σε μιαν ανάσα
τόσα χρόνια τα χωράω
Τα φιλιά σου κι όσες γράψαν μουσικές
Σε μιαν ανάσα
Σε μιαν ανάσα
Ότι έγινα σε σένα το χρωστάω
Το χρωστάω
κι ο δειλός
δε το ξεστόμισα ποτέ
Κι αν καμιά φορά με πιάνουν
κάτι ανόητες μανίες
και τα κάνω άνω κάτω
και τραβάω το σκοινί
του σκορπιού μου το κεντρί
Βγάζω, μάτια μου, ισόβια
σε κρυμμένες μου φοβίες
μην ξυπνήσω κάποια μέρα
κι έχεις εξαφανιστεί
Μια ζωή χωρίς ζωή
All these years a single breath
Singer: Lavrentis Maheritsas
Lyrics: Lina Demopoulou
Music: Lavrentis Maheritsas
I light a cigerette
of the forbidden ones
Always the escapade
I loved the most
I light another cigarette
At work and at school
at love's arena
an escape I sought
and a disorderly flight
until you showed up
The melodies took pace
and love's chemistries
and songs were born
and a beautiful child
I had not even imagined it
It is now that we count
about two decades
and nobody wants anymore
to escape from it
provided you are there
In a single breath
all these years I fit
Your kisses and all the music they wrote
In a breath
In a breath
All I became to you I owe
I owe
and the coward
never uttered as much
And if sometimes I am gripped
by mindless manias
and turn things upside down
and go to extremes
the sting of my scorpion
I spend, my eyes, a life sentence
in my hidden phobias
not to wake up one day
and you are gone
A life without life
Beyond the obvious elements of romance and love, this song is about how we thrive within constraints. Every agent of action needs structure in their life in order to retain their vitality.
The impression of complete openendedness leads to ruin because human has the propensity for hubris. It is an innate frailty of our character: to overdo it, to go beyond the confines of what is sustainable. We never have enough.
Whether some phenomenon is benign or detrimental to us is a matter of degree. Nothing is an absolute blessing or curse. Even water, the essence of our life, will poison us if we drink too much of it too quickly.
There must always be boundaries to prevent us from going too far. They put a limit on our otherwise insatiable wants. In doing so, they empower us to channel our limited energy to what we can do well, thus bringing worth our best version.
Relationships, habits, responsibilities, and rules form a nexus of forces that keep the individual present in their presence. A sense of belonging, duty, commitment, or purpose is essential. It is what anchors the person in their milieu by holding them accountable to a certain standard, while rewarding them accordingly.
A person who lacks structure is, as the song correctly describes, always keen on escaping from whatever their immediate reality is. They will even flee from their own works, for those require further maintenance or shall create some longer-term responsibility, i.e. a form of structure.
As such, a person without any structure in their life is one who does not reach their potential. They feel a void within them and experience the attendant powerlessness. Their very agency is the cause of their angst.
In the song, the structure comes from the “you” who is the spouse of the poetic first person. It is the person who sets the “I” in order, giving our protagonist the impetus they need to become creative.
The structure is not necessarily external to the person. It can come from within. That is discipline: to define, implement, and continuously enforce one’s own rules for every facet of their life. To the disciplined person, these rules are not negotiable: they are sacrosanct for as long as reasonableness demands.
In practice, there will be internal and external sources. Even the most disciplined person benefits from having commitments: projects of some kind or relationships that demand attention and require upkeep.
Remember that hubris is latent in everything we do. This includes the aforementioned structure. There may come a time, for example, when the person will need to revise the precepts that their discipline safeguards or to terminate relationships that are becoming toxic.
Whatever the case, there is no shame in recognising what kind of person one is. Those who lack discipline must muster the courage to admit as much and then try to find structure through social arrangements: family, friends, tribe, club, religion… The modalities do not matter.