Dhiorios

composer’s note
Several years ago, my old friend and mentor
Theofanis Stavrou asked Cypriot poet Roula
Ioannidis-Stavrou to write a poem about
Dhiorios, his childhood village, located near the
northern coast of Cyprus. Dhiorios, historically an
ethnically mixed village, was captured by Turkish
troops during the invasion in the summer of
1973, forcing the Greek inhabitants to leave. The
poem expresses a longing to return not only to
the physical environs of Dhiorios, but to the
treasured memories of friends and family so far
away in time and memory from the present-day
life in exile, wherever in the world it may be. The
poem was commissioned with the specific
purpose of being set to music that could be sung
by Professor Stavrou’s daughter Niki. This setting
is one version; another is being written by Niki
herself.

DHIORIOS
My thoughts drift with the breeze
above the mountains of Cyprus,
and from its skies I behold
the endless beauty of Dhiorios.
The fields spread out in front of me,
with the tulips in their embrace,
and the bright red poppies –
they flood my heart.
On the pavements are pots
of sweet-scented flowers,
and the doors of the courtyards
are adorned with fragrant jasmine.
(refrain)
Dhiorios, Dhiorios,
my village, how I miss you.
How I desire, how I desire

to find myself near you.
With the strength of my soul
I will set out again
to come to worship
in our Aya Marina.
I seem to hear in its little alleys
familiar voices of friends,
songs, laughter, joyous commotion
in their open arms.
Nearby are the neighborhoods,
clean, with beautiful houses,
and further, just below, places
where we played as children.
Now I see you enslaved,
suppressed under the Turk’s boot.
How I desire, how I desire
to see you free again!
(refrain)
Dhiorios, Dhiorios,
my village, how I miss you!
[How I desire, how I desire
to see you free again!] Roula Ioannidou-Stavrou, October 2019,
Lefkosia, Cyprus
Translation: Theofanis G.Stavrou
Used with the permission of the poet, courtesy of
Theofanis G. Stavrou.