Two Poems of Ernesto P. Santiago, Greece/Philippines

i. They Call Me The Poet

I’m just a perfect
word,
always chasing the thrill of the soul.
I want everything in our world
to be done the right way,
so that’s why I didn’t feel it.
I let my heart
do the oratory.
They call me the poet
until it is a poem.

Με Λένε Ο Ποιητής

Είμαι απλά μία τέλεια
λέξη,
κυνηγώντας πάντα τη συγκίνηση της ψυχής.
Θέλω όλα στον κόσμο μας
να γίνονται με τον σωστό τρόπο,
γι' αυτό δεν το ένιωσα.
Αφήνω την καρδιά μου
να κάνει τη ρητορική.
Με λένε ο ποιητής
μέχρι να γίνει ποίημα

ii.Unworn Necklace

It takes two
to learn,
one to show
the fault.
But I really hate
when smiling is the only thing I can do
to feel better.
There’s always
peace within us, we just don’t
know how
and when to use it.
Still here I am,
your unworn necklace,
my child!


Αφόρετο Κολιέ

Χρειάζονται δύο
για να μάθουμε,
ένας για να δείξει
το λάθος.
Αλλά πραγματικά μισώ
όταν το χαμόγελο είναι το μόνο πράγμα που μπορώ να κάνω
για να νιώσω καλύτερα.
Υπάρχει πάντα ειρήνη μέσα μας, απλά δεν
ξέρουμε πώς
και πότε να τη χρησιμοποιήσουμε.
Ακόμα εδώ είμαι, 

το αφόρετό σου κολιέ,
παιδί μου!

© Ernesto P. Santiago, Greece/Philippines

Μετάφραση στα Ελληνικά :Ernesto P. Santiago

Brief Bio:

Ernesto P. Santiago spends all his free time between here and there, trying to learn something. He is too small for his ego. He is enough for himself. He thinks, “Poetry is a global temperature that will always surprise us.” and he has been into poetry for as far back as he can recall. He has no clear idea why, but he thinks he exposed himself to poetry unwittingly, but lately he wanted it to become his literary purpose. His first international exposure like ‘meet and greet’ with the world of poetry was in 2008 when he was invited to the Romania International Festival “Curtea de Argeş Poetry Nights” where he read his poem for the first time in front of a crowd and also here where he received his first international poetry award - the International Academy Orient-Occident Grand Prize. He authored six books of poetry, and his poetic thought has been widely published and anthologised, in print and online. Poetry has brought him such joy and many friends, and poetry awards too - including most recently the Astroscale Prize from the EU-Japan NewSpace2060 International Illustrated Haiku Competition 2019 and the Naji Naaman Literary Prize 2021 for his complete work “Ang Tinig Ng Ligaw Na Tula / The Voice Of The Wild Verse.” Born in the Philippines, he lives in Athens, Greece, and is inspired daily by the myth of his poetic senses.