THE  CORRUPT  BIRDS

Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon

As if a thousand troubles were not enough,
now the  Corrupt Birds have appeared as well.
Like the Harpies, they devour Phineus’ food,
and they have now found lodging in Europe,
perched in a place of honor upon the roof.

The Currupt Birds are hard to drive away;
they snatch the wealth and trouble everyone.
They scented a “bribe” in Qatar,
where the cook lays out lavish feasts,
and straightway the Filthy Bird rushed for the tripe.

But the “naive Europeans” do not swallow such things;
they saw the grease upon the table.
Their laws pursue the bribe,
while here everything seems permissible;
Harpies and Filthy Birds have built a permanent nest.

The Europeans set a trap for them,
a male and a female,
and caught them in the vise.

Now inside the cage,
without distinction and without shame,
the Corrupt  Birds know neither conscience nor morality;
all it takes is a hefty bribe,
and every restraint immediately disappears.

Greek Justice turns a blind eye,
while the Harpies and the  Corrupt Birds build palaces.
Poor Phineus, unhappy soul,
tormented, hungry, and destitute,
is unable to protect his home.

He waits for a Katseli to crow,
to move the rodents and the Harpies to compassion
and save his little house.

The law fears lest the Harpies shed a tear;
only the dictatorship, they say, kept them in order.
Everything then seemed to go according to plan,
but in the end they too went astray,
and the Restoration of Democracy brought disaster.

Now the people, helpless and alone,
stand at a critical crossroads,
before the “great” traffic controller.
They seek to find the proper path,
yet the Harpies mine every step they take,
to seize whatever they have built with blood and money.

Again they wish to eat his food,
to contaminate it and drive him far from his homeland.
They wish to devour all the goldfinches,
and if things continue as they are,
they may well make him disappear altogether.

Although the food lay before him,
the Harpies snatched it away and defiled it.
The Corrupt   Birds tormented him with their overpowering stench.
He chased them, yet they always returned,
and they brought Phineus to his final misery.

Then a Heracles appeared,
a mighty and renowned commander.
He pursued the Harpies across Africa
and as far as the Propontis,
and thereafter freed the homeland from the Filthy Birds.

And then, so the myth relates, joyful Athena
celebrated the Panathenaea once more
with splendid festivity.

(24 June 2026)

Amphiktyon – Lieutenant General (Ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Writer – Member of the Society of Greek Writers

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