Twenty Eternal Truths By Menelaos Lountemis

By Nick Stamatakis

I grew up with “A Child Counts the Stars” by Menelaos Lountemis… His biography – aggregated here by A.I. – reflects the tragic history of Greece of the last 100 years: refugeeship, war against the Nazis, civil war, internal exile and exile in Romania… These tragic events are bound to make someone wiser – even though Lountemis was gifted from birth… His 20 eternal truths at the end of the post are truly gems…

Menelaos Lountemis was born Dimitrios “Takis” Valasiadis—some sources cite Asia Minor’s Agia Kyriaki in 1912, others even Constantinople a few years earlier openlibrary.org+10en.wikipedia.org+10celebsagewiki.com+10. His family, prosperous before the 1922 Greco-Turkish catastrophe, lost everything and fled to Greece, passing through Aegina, Edessa, and finally settling in Exaplatanos, Pella my-favourite-planet.de+6impactalk.gr+6impactalk.gr+6.

Stricken by poverty, young Dimitrios took on grueling jobs—dishwasher, shoeshine boy, cantor, teacher, even foreman on the Gallikos River—while nurturing a hunger for knowledge. His pseudonym, “Lountemis,” honors the Loudias River of his childhood impactalk.gr+3impactalk.gr+3en.wikipedia.org+3.

Rising Writer and Intellectual

In 1927, he first published poems in the Agrotiki Idea newspaper under his real name. By 1934, he debuted the name Menelaos Lountemis with a story titled “One Night with Many Lights…” my-favourite-planet.de+10en.wikipedia.org+10impactalk.gr+10.
A period of nomadic learning followed—from Kozani to Volos and Athens—where he joined circles of literary luminaries like Kostas Varnalis, Angelos Sikelianos, and Miltiadis Malakassis impactalk.gr+3de.wikipedia.org+3en.wikipedia.org+3. Through Malakassis, he secured a post as librarian at the Athenian Club in 1938 and simultaneously received the Greek State Prize for his short story collection The Ships Never Moored de.wikipedia.org+2en.wikipedia.org+2impactalk.gr+2.

War, Resistance & Imprisonment

During WWII, Lountemis embraced the intellectual battle for freedom as secretary of the EAM resistance’s writers’ association iwrite.gr+11impactalk.gr+11impactalk.gr+11. His leftist beliefs led to his arrest during the Greek Civil War, a death sentence for high treason (later commuted), and exile to Makronisos and Ai Stratis—where peers included Mikis Theodorakis and Yiannis Ritsos babelmatrix.org+5impactalk.gr+5yurtsever.org.tr+5.
In 1958 his memoir Days Filled with Tears was suppressed, accused of promoting sedition.

Exile and Literary Legacy

By the 1950s and ’60s, Lountemis had authored ~45 works—poetry, plays, novels—with A Child Counts the Stars (1956) earning best-seller status and enduring acclaim en.wikipedia.org+4impactalk.gr+4impactalk.gr+4.
Following the 1967 junta, he lost Greek citizenship and resettled in Romania, translating Romanian writers and continuing his creative work antiwarsongs.org+4impactalk.gr+4en.wikipedia.org+4.

Return & Passing

Restored as a Greek citizen in 1976, Lountemis finally returned home, though his renewed presence was brief. He passed away of a heart attack on January 22, 1977, and his funeral drew a large attendance from the literary community. impactalk.gr+1impactalk.gr+1.

Why Lountemis Matters

Lountemis’s poetry and prose—imbued with lyrical realism—amplified the voices of the dispossessed, blending deep empathy with political insight.
Considered the most widely read novelist after Nikos Kazantzakis, he inspired an annual literary prize in his name and a namesake building in Bucharest impactalk.gr+2en.wikipedia.org+2celebsagewiki.com+2.

From provincial hardship to national acclaim, wartime resistance to later exile, Lountemis’s life remains a compelling narrative of artistic perseverance, human dignity, and unwavering hope. Let me know if you’d like a deep dive into any particular work or era!

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TWENTY ETERNAL TRUTHS (the title is mine…)

1. “To love means I love… What the other does is their own business.”

2. “He who truly loves the People never becomes their leader—he becomes their servant.”

3. “If you’re truly good—where are your enemies?”

4. “Freedom is never sold cheaply. Nor is it ever given as a gift. Those who got it as a gift squandered it.”

5. “All God’s words are good. Just beware when priests start using them.”

6. “Place a sunset and a little boat melting into it. Beauty!
   But if no eye sees it, is it beauty?”

7. “A filthy body can be washed clean. But how do you wash a dirty soul?”
   (From “Smileless Spring”)

8. “Fear God—but tremble before His believers!”

9. “Friendship lasts only a day. Every day you have to give it a fresh pair of underwear.”

10. “If we are to sink, let us sink into the ocean—not into the washtub!”

11. “A person who gives water to the thirsty can never be evil.”

12. “All the world’s disasters came from begging.”

13. “Now that youth was needed—old age has come…”
    (From “Angry Wheat”)

14. “The shortest story in the world is the story of cowardly men.”

15. “Come on, just one more push and we’ve made it through life… Let the next ones take their turn.”

16. “What a wild, headstrong mare this Greece is—no one can get her under control!”

17. “The wind blew like a Gypsy.”
    (The first line from “A Child Counts the Stars”)

18. “I like people who decide quickly. They break their heads easily—and find peace.”

19. “We are all human. Humans who came not just for the honey—but for the sting as well.”

20. “In love, aren’t all the times we love… the first?”

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ΟΙ ΕΙΚΟΣΙ ΑΙΩΝΙΕΣ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΖΩΗΣ

1. Αγαπώ θα πει εγώ αγαπώ… Το τι κάνει ο άλλος είναι δική του δουλειά.

2. Κείνος που στ’ αληθινά αγαπά το Λαό δε γίνεται ποτέ αρχηγός του, γίνεται υπηρέτης του.

3. Αν είσαι καλός πού ’ναι οι οχτροί σου;

4. Φτηνά τη Λευτεριά δεν την πουλούν πουθενά. Ούτε και τη χαρίζουνε. Όσοι την πήραν χάρισμα τη χαράμισαν.

5. Όλα τα λόγια του θεού είναι καλά. Μόνο, βάρντα, να μην τα πάρουνε στο στόμα τους οι παπάδες.

6. Βάλε μια δύση κι ένα βαρκάκι να λιώνει μέσα. Ομορφιά! Μα, αν δεν υπάρχει μάτι να το δει, είναι ομορφιά;

7. Το άπλυτο κορμί το πλένεις. Καθαρίζει. Η βρόμικη ψυχή πώς πλένεται; («Αγέλαστη Άνοιξη»)

8. Φοβού τον Θεόν αλλά τρέμε τους πιστούς του!

9. Η φιλία κρατάει μονάχα μια μέρα. Κάθε μέρα πρέπει να της αλλάζεις βρακί.

10. Εάν βυθισθώμεν, ας βυθισθώμεν εις τον ωκεανόν! Ουχί εις την σκάφην!

11. Ένας άνθρωπος που δίνει στο διψασμένο νερό ποτές δεν είναι κακός.

12. Όλες οι συμφορές στον κόσμο απ’ τα παρακάλια έγιναν.

13. Τώρα που χρειάζονταν τα νιάτα, ήρθαν τα γηρατειά… (“Θυμωμένα Στάχυα”)

14. Η λακωνικότερη ιστορία του κόσμου είναι η ιστορία των δειλών ανθρώπων.

15. Άιντε, ένα χεράκι ακόμη και τη βγάλαμε τη ζωή… Να πάρουν σειρά οι άλλοι.

16. Τι τσινιάρικη φοράδα είν’ αυτή η Ελλάδα και δεν μποράνε να την κάνουν ζάφτι;

17. Ο αέρας φύσαγε σαν γύφτος. (η πρώτη φράση από το «Ένα Παιδί Μετράει τ’ Άστρα»)

18. Μ’ αρέσουν οι άνθρωποι που αποφασίζουν γλήγορα. Σπάζουν εύκολα το κεφάλι τους κι ησυχάζουν.

19. Όλοι είμαστε άνθρωποι. Άνθρωποι που ήρθαμε για να φάμε όχι μόνο το μέλι αλλά και το κεντρί.

20. Στον έρωτα μήπως όλες οι φορές που αγαπούμε δεν είναι πρώτες;