Friends Came to See Me

Friends came to see me

From the great and busy city.

“But why sit here like this?” they said,

“You’ll grow faint and dizzy.”

One night they took me with them

To chase after the girls;

But their brothers spotted us,

And we scattered through the alleys.

They brought me back at morning light,

Straight into the kitchen;

Half past five the day began,

And the routine continued.

There we worked together,

Heavy hours inside the kitchen;

And while we talked and laughed a bit,

A great hunger seized me.

I ate and ate insatiably,

In secret and in plain sight;

Nothing ever filled me up,

Though I was small and slight.

I remembered then my mother

Who pleaded lovingly:

“Eat, Kouzi, my dear boy,” she’d say,

Her heart aching for me.

She always gave me counsel,

Never to forget—

No matter how life troubled me,

To stay upon the righteous path.

In life’s confusing labyrinth

You must not lose your thread;

Be careful not to lose yourself,

Think through each step you tread.

And when you wake up all alone

And lie down by yourself,

In a foreign land you quickly learn

How fast you truly grow.

We changed so many different jobs,

Countless recommendations;

At “Margareta” we often went,

Where Anastas cut our hair.

There I met again one night

An old and cherished friend;

I knew him from our village days,

We embraced with eager joy.

We formed a five-man orchestra,

Five young men together;

At “Syros” we spent all we earned,

Our gathering place forever.