- I have been living in Greece for over ten years, said Bret, I cannot still yet used to it. Every time I meet somebody I know, it starts again: "Yeia sou!" I say. "Ti kaneis? How do you do?"

An Englishman would answer curtly: "Well, thank you - and how are you?" A Frenchman would probably add a short comment to the ça va?. But a Greek! He can deliver a lecture or a rhapsody. Always in a minor key.

Yesterday I met Petros. He is not a close friend - just an acquaintance. My question was just formal - but his answer could fill pages:

- Ah! my friend, he said, I have a serious problem with my back. I cannot lift any weight. I cannot stoop down. I even cannot tie my shoelaces. And my stomach - oh! Who me - I used to eat a small lamb in one sitting! And my wife had an hysterectomy and she going through a very difficult phase.

- But the children - they are all right?

- I don't like my son's friends. Bad company! As for my daughter...

He went on an on. Business was terrible, almost nobody visited his store, profits were down, the whole country was in a mess... I was in a hurry. With great difficulty I managed to extract myself and move on.

I have known Petros for many years - I have never heard a positive word from his mouth. If his financial grumbling was correct, he would have been bankrupt years ago. If his health declarations were accurate, he wouldn't be alive any more. As far as I hear he is doing very well, he has a profitable small business, charming kids and a loyal wife. He also has an infinite "grinia" potential!

And he is not an exception. Never will a Greek, if asked about his situation, give you an cheerful account. I am sick and tired of this eternal complaint.

- Look Bret, I admit you have a point. Greeks are not merry and light-hearted. And they seldom give a positive picture of their situation. It is something like a superstition. They are deeply afraid that any optimistic statement will incur the wrath of the Gods.

- How do you translate γκρίνια in English? My dictionary proposes: whining, whimpering, complaining, nagging, sniveling, grumbling, fretting. Somehow none of these words seems to me the exact counterpart of the Greek term. But then such affective denominations are untranslatable.

- It is not even a Greek word (it comes from the Italian 'grignia') - but it sums up one of the most essential Greek characteristics: complaining. For a Greek it is equivalent with living. One could alter Descartes famous word: I complain therefore I exist. Look at the Greek songs - the traditional ones, the dimotika and the more recent ones the rebetika. They both speak about pain, homesickness, bereavement, death, unrequited love. Not even five per cent of them are joyful.

- But why? I admit, the history of Greece is not that cheerful, but other nations have also had their part of suffering. As you rightly said most of the Greeks songs are in one way or another 'moirologia' - dirges

- A Greek writer of the nineteenth century has written an essay claiming that the modern Greek word for song τραγούδι comes from the ancient term tragic. To sing is to lament.

- You have still not answered my question: why?

- Well, I have a theory. Greeks are passionate people. They adore life. They really enjoy living. But, as the wise Buddha said, the more you are attached to this world, the more you suffer. Greek pessimism is not the result of a negative approach to existence - just the opposite. It originates in a very deep thirst for living, which can never be quenched. From the times of Homer the complaint is the same: life is wonderful, but so short! Never have the Greeks found real consolations in thoughts of an afterlife. It is too abstract and distant. They want everything and they want it now. No wonder they constantly feel frustrated!

- So, according to you, Greeks moan because they want more of life. Don't they realize that because of their constant grumbling they actually get less?

- Well, this is the typical self fulfilling prophecy - and another reason to protest. The more you ask for, the less you get.

- And what about the "Zorba image"? The jovial reveler, the untiring roisterer, who rejoices and carouses twenty four hours a day?

This is, of course, a creation of travel agents. The original Zorba, the hero of Kazantzakis's novel, was a passionate but not a jovial person. In his depth you can find a lot of despair. His merry-making was tinged with a strong taste of regret. You can hear this in the old 'classic rebetica' songs. You can feel it in the deep, serious expression of a zeibekiko dancer. He is not having fun. He is expressing the beauty and agony of living.

- You sound poetic!

- Well, is it by chance that Greeks produce more and better poetry than any nation I know of?

- You probably are right. The pro capita poetry production on Greeks is overwhelming.

- And so is the quality. You know I am not a chauvinist - just the opposite! But I must say that I am constantly amazed at the poetic wonders of this nation.

- And you mean there is a relationship between poetry and "grinia"?

- Isn't poetry the most noble form of complaint?

- Astonishing! I never thought that the bothersome whimpering of Petros (and many others) I experience every day has the same roots with the poetry of Elytis!

- Poetry comes from feeling. Greeks are an emotive people. Somewhere there I feel a correlation. The same pathos, depending on the person, its background, talent and culture, can be expressed in different forms.

- Well, now, every time somebody bores me with his grinia I will try to think of the other forms. Of Seferis and Kavafis, of Dimoula and Karouzos...