Coming out of a restaurant,
we were stopped by this chap.
"I have bar. You come to my bar!"
Chickens for plucking, we must have looked.
"FILOXENIA!" we thought.
There was no-one there,
apart from the girls who joined us.
We bought them drinks,
paid - "HOW MUCH?" -
and slunk off, shivering, into the night.
An evening in Athens without adjectives
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juliadebeauvoir
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- Location: East of Eden
Did this actually happen?
And what is filoxenia? I looked it up in the Greek and Latin dictionaries. The only thing I could think of is that you are filo (phyllo: thin crusted dough) and xenia (people). Doughy people passing a (crazed) bartender. Ha! There is an adjective in your poem!
How bizzarre, how bizzare...
And what is filoxenia? I looked it up in the Greek and Latin dictionaries. The only thing I could think of is that you are filo (phyllo: thin crusted dough) and xenia (people). Doughy people passing a (crazed) bartender. Ha! There is an adjective in your poem!
How bizzarre, how bizzare...
- Not surprising if you'd just been plucked. Sounds about right though - If they haven't got a bar they have a vineyard or an olive grove, shop, boat, hotel - I don't think I've ever met a labourer in Greece, just seen pictures of them. Filoxenia is a place near Kalamata, where the famous black olives come from (and the oil). I like your use of it here because it's really what the poems about (I think). My limited knowledge of Greek tells me that it's the opposite of xenophobia, fear or hatred of foreigners - philo meaning 'to like', xeno meaning 'foreigner'.The Greeks certainly make big thing of hospitality (even though you sometimes have to pay for it).and slunk off, shivering, into the night
Have I got it totally wrong and made a pig's dick of myself?
Zorba
Kim, yes, it happened. My mate Neil and I - innocents abroad, we were. Filoxenia, I think, is what Barrie says it is - no pig's dickery there, old chap - "xenos" means stranger, and "xenia" is a synonym for "filoxenia", which means "love of strangers." In Greek culture it is still a strong custom to be hospitable to strangers, so the two words, which might seem opposite, actually are very close.
Yes, well, up to a point, Lord Copper.
I did not know that about it being the place where the olives come from. (Like Brazil ...?) We passed through Kalamata on the same holiday, on the way from Pylos to Sparta (I think it was).
And you picked up on the plucking, Barrie. I wasn't sure if that would come across.
However, I'd just like to return to Kim's valiant attempt to invent an etymology for filoxenia - "flaky strangers", basically - hey, that's not far out. Have you met my mate Neil?
Anyway, family hols coming up soon, as soon as school's out - Greece again - we're going to try one of the Cyclades, but I'll try to stay out of the clip joints.
Cheers (yeia sas!)
David
Yes, well, up to a point, Lord Copper.
I did not know that about it being the place where the olives come from. (Like Brazil ...?) We passed through Kalamata on the same holiday, on the way from Pylos to Sparta (I think it was).
And you picked up on the plucking, Barrie. I wasn't sure if that would come across.
However, I'd just like to return to Kim's valiant attempt to invent an etymology for filoxenia - "flaky strangers", basically - hey, that's not far out. Have you met my mate Neil?
Anyway, family hols coming up soon, as soon as school's out - Greece again - we're going to try one of the Cyclades, but I'll try to stay out of the clip joints.
Cheers (yeia sas!)
David
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juliadebeauvoir
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I am jealous that you get to go to Greece (again!). I would just die to meet flaky strangers while traipsing through olive country. Europeans get to go to great places on holiday.--I'm lucky if I get to Madison, WI for a beer brat.
Cheers,
Desperate-for-a-Vacation-Just-Not -in-the-Mid-West
Cheers,
Desperate-for-a-Vacation-Just-Not -in-the-Mid-West
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twoleftfeet
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- Location: Standing by a short pier, looking for a long run-up
David,
I think you did the right thing.
I knew a guy who went into one of those places in the West End and refused to pay - he was later threatened and
later still, beaten up.
Rather a spot of so-called hospitality than the hospital, I always say!
Geoff
btw Surely there is a word missing between "HOW" and "MUCH" ?
DOH! Or am I being thick and that is the point of the title? (assuming you can count the "F" word as an adjective here)
I think you did the right thing.
I knew a guy who went into one of those places in the West End and refused to pay - he was later threatened and
later still, beaten up.
Rather a spot of so-called hospitality than the hospital, I always say!
Geoff
btw Surely there is a word missing between "HOW" and "MUCH" ?
DOH! Or am I being thick and that is the point of the title? (assuming you can count the "F" word as an adjective here)
Geoff, I would definitely be counting that as an adjective, but is that right? What, grammatically speaking, do you call a word that modifies another adjective, not a noun? I dunno.
Rather a spot of so-called hospitality than the hospital, I always say!
Them's my sentiments as well.
David
Rather a spot of so-called hospitality than the hospital, I always say!
Them's my sentiments as well.
David
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donjuaninhell
- Posts: 38
- Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:52 pm
the inverted syntax in the first stanza, though perhaps emphasizing the language barrier, just stops the flow of the thought. at least on the first two lines, i think if you inverted it you'd tell the story better if nothing else:
[i}We were stopped by this chap
coming out of a restaurant,
"I have bar. You come to my bar!"[/i]
and, though its important to the poem, and the word is fantastic, the filoxenia (philoxenia might be a better spelling?) line seems misplaced, maybe right after come to my bar; well, maybe it's just the proximity to chickens for plucking, we must have looked: i think it would be fine if you started the second stanza with chickens . . . and inverted, something like
We were stopped by this chap
coming out of a restaurant,
"I have bar. You come to my bar!"
"FILOXENIA!" we thought.
Chickens for plucking, we must have looked.
There was no-one there,
apart from the girls who joined us.
We bought them drinks,
paid - "HOW MUCH?" -
and slunk off, shivering, into the night.
that's my two bits: after reading it again, the short phrases are really effective, once i got used to them, and i loved the last line and the use of "chap"
[i}We were stopped by this chap
coming out of a restaurant,
"I have bar. You come to my bar!"[/i]
and, though its important to the poem, and the word is fantastic, the filoxenia (philoxenia might be a better spelling?) line seems misplaced, maybe right after come to my bar; well, maybe it's just the proximity to chickens for plucking, we must have looked: i think it would be fine if you started the second stanza with chickens . . . and inverted, something like
We were stopped by this chap
coming out of a restaurant,
"I have bar. You come to my bar!"
"FILOXENIA!" we thought.
Chickens for plucking, we must have looked.
There was no-one there,
apart from the girls who joined us.
We bought them drinks,
paid - "HOW MUCH?" -
and slunk off, shivering, into the night.
that's my two bits: after reading it again, the short phrases are really effective, once i got used to them, and i loved the last line and the use of "chap"