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TRANSCRIPT
the Ah
NO. 7 (1984)
BULLETIN
of
The Modern Greek Studies Program
University of Toronto
1. The Modern Greek at U. of Toronto 2-4
2. THE GARDEN. Poems in Translation 5-29
3. Activities & News 4, 30,43-44
4. oxx& 'Cxrutcd' rne GalloeodxnC(MLXPO 6 OooopLXb. IoUhLoc 1983) 31-42
5. Reviews 45-55
MODERN GREE K
AlT THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS, UNIVERSITY
OF TORONTO
PROGRAMS OF STUDY
Minor Program: any three courses in Modern Greek
from GRK 150Y/245Y/250Y/350Y/355Y/
450Y approved by the Department.
Major Program: six courses are required in a pro-
gram of at least fifteen courses.
A. 3 courses in Modern Greek at
200- or higher level, including
GRK 350Y/355Y.
B. 3 courses from DRM· 260H (half
course in Drama, History of the
Greek and Roman Theater); FAH cour-
ses in ancient art; GLL 191H (half
course in Greek and Latin Litera-
ture in translation, Introduction
to Classical Mythology), GLL 202H
(The Ancient Novel), GLL 205Y
(Greek and Roman Mythology), GLL
225H (Homer), GLL 230Y (Greek and
Roman Philosophy), GLL 250Y (Modern
Greek Literature in translation),
GLL 290H (Development of Greek Reli-
gious Thought), GLL 300Y (Greek Tra-
gedy and Comedy); GRH 100Y (Greek
and Roman History, Greek and Roman
Civilization), GRH 200Y (Greek Hi-
I story to the Death of Alexander),
,GRH 216Y (Alexander the Great and
the Hellenistic Age), GRH 221H (He-
rodotus), GRH 223H (Thucydides), GRH
S309Y (Archaic Greece), GRH 312Y (Stu-
4 dies in Greek History of the 5th Cen-
tury), GRH 314Y (The Jews in Greek
/2/
and Roman History); any GRK coursesnot counted under A; NES 251Y (NearEastern Studies, Introductory Helle-nistic Greek), NES 35Y (HellenisticGreek I), NES 451Y (Hellenistic GreekII), NES 471Y (History and Culture ofthe Hellenistic Near East); PHL 200Y
(Philosophy, Birth of Western Philo-sophy), PHL 301Y (Plato), PHL 302Y(Aristotle).Non-specialist Electives: 3 courses.
Modern Langu-ages and Lite-ratures: a program which is in effect a number
of sub-programs, any two of which maybe undertaken concurrently. 14 coursesare required in a program of at least20 courses, seven in each subject. Non-
specialist Electives: 4 courses. Lan-guages other than Greek: English,French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Po-lish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Cro-atian, Spanish, Ukrainian.GREEK: 3 courses in Modern Greek at200- or higher level, of which at leastone must be at a 300- level; 3 coursesin Ancient or Hellenistic Greek; 1 addi-tional course from GLL/GRK/GRH courses,FAH courses in Greek Art, NES coursesin Hellenistic History.
NOTE: Y indicates a full-year course.
COURSES INMODERN GREEK: GRK 150Y, Introductory Modern Greek.
Basic text: P. Bien, et al., DemoticGreek I. Optional lab practice. Bibli-ography of publications relating to thehistory and structure of Greek. 4 hoursa week.
GRK 245Y, Intermediate Modern Greek.Basic text: P. Bien, et al., Demotic
/3/
Greek; C. Tsirpanlis, Modern GreekIdiom and Phrase Book; and Necelli-niki Ghrammatiki (of the Greek OEAB).Also, selections from modern Greekliterature. Classroom use of tapes,slides and pictures. 3 hours a week.
GRK 250Y, Modern Greek Literature.Basic texts: L. Politis, Piitiki An-thologia. Vols. 6-8; another antholo-gy (in 1983-84, Niarhos E Fostieris,Piissi '81; selections by the instru-ctor from modern Greek prose. Biblio-
graphies. Classroom use of tapes, sli-des and pictures. 2 hours a week.
GRK 350Y, Contemporary Greek Litera-ture (offered in alternate years).Works read in 1982-83: 0. Elytis, ToAxion Esti; Y. RitsoS, Dhiadhromos keSkala; P. Haris, Imeres Oryis; N. Ka-chtitsis, Ergha I. Summary presenta-tion of other works of poetry and prose.Classroom use of tapes and records. 2hours a week.
U GRK 355Y, Contemporary Greek Drama(offered in alternate years). Worksread in 1983-84: Selections from An-ninos, Kambisis, Hristomanos, Xenopou-los, Palamas, Horn, Boghris, Moraitini-nis, Melas, Theotokas; Hehaidhis, I ve-ra, To Tayli; Skourtis, I Dadadhes. Al-so, selections from ancient Greek dramain translation. Summary presentationof other theatrical works. Classroomuse of tapes and records. 2 hours aweek.
GRK 450Y, Major Writers of Modern Greece
(offered in alternate years). Works readin 1983-84: P. Prevelakis, o Ilios touThanatou, I Kefali tis Mi~edhousas; O Ar-tos ton Anghelon; Y. Ritsos, Tetarti
/4/
\ Dhiastasi, Piimata, Vol. 4, Meletimata.
Summary presentation of other works by
Prevelakis and Ritsos. Classroom use of
tapes and records. 2 hours a week.
(See also section Activities & News).
ACTIVITIES &; NE WS
1. Re. Poetry Reading (by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke)
announced in the previous issue of the Bulletin. The
occasion (on November 12, 1983) was combined with the
awarding of ribbons and certificates to ten of our
language students, winners in the 1983 annual compe-
tition (modern Greek) sponsored by the American Clas-
sical League. Seventeen students took part in the 1984
competition and the winners among them will be honored
in some special ceremony next fall.
2. The event (under 1) was antedated by a display of
illustrated books from Greece at the Hellenic Cultural
Center in October and lectures by the Consul General of
Greece in Toronto, Mr. J'ohn Thomoglou, by Prof. George
Thaniel (on modern Greek painting with slides) and Mlr.
Dinos Siotis, in charge of Press and information of the
Greek embassy in Ottawa, on books (October 18, 1983).
3. Our Program's small reception on December 8, 1983,
marking the end of the first term of classes, was em-
bellished by the presence of Mrs. Irini Stubos who
acted out dramatic monologues by Jean Cocteau and Za-
charias Papantoniou. Irini studied acting and theater
Cont'd on p. 43
POEMS IN TRANSLA'TION
TI
/6/
TWO POEMS by NIKOS KAROUZOS. Trans.Kimon Friar.
**·***
What I once Said to an Aviator
If from the sun you subtract greedy astronomyit becomes nothing more than a glowworm that expandsmovement in the voiceless darkness.It's of no possible significance for us to dripwith miserly truths and drops of certainty;cleverness, that seductress, has not even a single
originality;he is original who judges wordswho is always penalizing his fingersthe moment they're moving the speechless pen alone.Vertigo has nothing maternal about itand night nothing paternal.I've spoken before about such makeshifts.Our dark companions: ends and extremetiesmock us with the savage gifts of the circle.Since old man Euclid has now fallen out of favor,length as an act of the universe is rejectedand height is the unfindable melody in space...I drew dusty eternity back like a curtainso easily I was dumibfounded to seethe lascivious nothingness of the anaphrodisiac curve!Then the Angel of Spring shouted to me: "Don't narrow
yourself,be saintly only, have no goal but drive onbeyond the affable daemon of love, even though you've
said:1I shall shatter the world and cast an evil eyeon the power of truth!'.Come, free yourself now from even the absence of the
Questionthat you may become more beautiful, may remain truly
alone...".
*****x
/7/
Discourse on Flowers
Cut like a flower in a vaseman too would have lived the absolute without ever
living.He would have been untrodden snow,rain which has taken another decisionand will never fall.He would have been a pure whiteand mature silence revealingthat serenity is God, word by word,and that nothing remains.Thus did I speak, gazing onsuperb rose-red hortensias, white and blue,like the head-dresses of goddesses,lunatic birds-of-paradise,fuschia and mignonettewith beautiful clambering passion flowers.I spoke, gazing onsnowdrops and delphinium,gaping cathedral bells, heliotrope,when the gloxinia howls tenderly in its beautyas chaotic vegetationfades away because of its yellow small affectationswith fennel flowers and otherworldly asphodelsand the philodendrons in the same revelationin the same disclosing altar of Demeterlike that mauve climbing vine which by itselfastounded meby confuting the night and the stars,a mauve crypt of air.Do we ever find ourselves higher than the stars?Do we ever rejoice in the light that emerges from
darkness?Or have we ever for a second seensilence seated in dignity?What a threnody are the flowers at our fingertipsand what immaculate darkness!Wounded with gold by the moonI see better how muchwe are envious of that pure mortalitywhich, so deeply and so cleanly, holdsthe cut flower in the vase...
/8/
Young girls rustle gentlyin the infinity of loveand what swift daybreaks when death blows!Multicoloredin their elevated desolationthe gladiolas rustle.
From the collections Band-aid for Small and GreatAntinomies and Grassy Chasms (Athens, 1971 E 1974).
FOUR SMALL POEMS by DINOS CHRISTIANOPOULOS.Trans. George Thaniel.
Bankrupt barbershopon Saturday nightwith no businessbankrupt bodyon Saturday nightwithout love.
My solitude looks like a forest of dreamsand you roam among my treesmy birds do not deceive younor does the rustle of my foliage touch youyou trample on my flowersand then are eager to go.Would my bushes were impassablewould you were lost in my forest.
On those kisseswill I ruminate when I lose youthose embraceswill be the tincans of my solitude.And this drip on the cushion
from your armpit ' s weatwill remind me of the fragranceof your body.
"Turn off the light, " you insisted-I recalled another loverwho wanted all lights on.
I no longer know what to choose-my ugliness vanished in the darknessyour beauty shines in the light.
From the collection The Body and the Bug (Thessalo-niki, 1982) .
/10/
TWO POEMS ABOUT STELLA*
*Stella loannou (1894-1972) is the heroine of thewell-known novel, The Schoolmistress with the Gol-den Eyes, by Stratis Myrivilis. She ended her life
by putting fire to herself, dying as she had lived-a proud iconoclast and rebel.
S tell 1a By Irving Layton
All afternoon she sits in the doorway, a tourist at-traction to be stared at by Greeks or the foreigners
Who know her story. Old and ill and her feet swollento rhinoceros size
Once, long ago, she was a wild creature so fair anddisdainful, she made the sober merchants dream at
their tillsAnd fishermen haul in lascivious sea-nymphs all night
long.Their wives, even the comeliest of virgins, cursed her
beauty praying their merciful GodTo strike her with plague or leprosy. One day He lifted
a petitioner's taper from its tiny brass socketAnd turned it into a man handsome and clever with
words, poet and talked-about novelist from anotherisland.
She saw him and fell, his curious fire loosening herlimbs;
In the crumbling Genoese castle, surrounded by ears,they made love.
The furious villagers rejoiced. At last the contemptu-ous beauty had been roiled in the mire
Her scented petticoats pulled over her head, her bes-mutted buttocks for all to see.
O the fetid dreams of men! How they besmeared thewhite breasts that had made them groan in their
sleepHow they reviled what for so long they had longed for
in vainWhile the women and girls so lit up the church
/11/
AYO HOIHMATA rIA THN ETEAAA
(Translation i.nto Greek by Eftihia Psimenatou,
Dinos Siotis, E George Thaniel)
ET L g Aa Tou 'EpBLv AAUTov+
'Oho L'andyeUa xdcr.Eat orov n6pra Inc, roupt-
orLx6 aELo94Gro yta roug <EhAnveS xt docue
8&vous yvoplSouv rny LTople rnC. rpnd wat
appmoTO UE RdGLa Hpnoubva OGv pLv6wEpou
Kd.nors, naXLd., dray ~vt ypiUL L6ao 6poppo
xat ahaAtovLx6 nou Cxave Touc ~ppdvUOUCEun6poug va ovetponohoiv oloug Iuln~aXTASee roug
wot roug Wiapd8~EC va LpaBdve 6An vžXTa rat
61xrua Touç ~AyVEC V6p CC DGaGOOLviCOL YUvalXEc rous, ax6ua Xt OL LOo copy6C nap-
86vEÇ, NaTaPtivTGV TAV OMOPQL6 TOG
HapaxaXlivrag Tov anauxvox6 Touc 886 va Inc
Plget navoUxAa 4 Adapa. MLa u&pa EXEIVOS
Hipe xdrnotag RoLaLc TO NEPi C( tO ULNP6 URPO -
TELyo 80xdptL TouKat r6'xave d.vLpa 6poppo noU'~Epe AdYLa wpale,
noonvi xaL EaxouoT6 ouyypae&a and'va dAAho
vnots.
Tov EliE X<IL hGYLOE, 0 REpl~y 60796Ya TOU Xa-
Ad~pwos La WAn~ roc* oro pnuaradvo rEvo8 -
CLOo xdor~PO, xUWXAmuVOL an'aund,, 6xavav
Epora. OL AU~(CcacyvoL ymPtALTEÇ tpCAAADDMGv
afrn~ Xapd rouç. Entr&Aoug, 0 ELutopivn
xaXhovn gixE WUXLOTEI ~Oo BoUpxoMS T'apOytTCOM vt MEGO 6pta TEC TpaaOYM VG
rdrvo an'to HE GAL TEC, Ta XEpOy VU REPtA
rng GE HOLVi 9 G.'n ra Suo068 6vELpt Tov Gvbp0v! noç x91 60039
r'donpa rng orian nou Loug Exavav va Boy-
ydvE OTOV 6Rvo TOUs
n;c XAE6acav 6,rt 6Oaov xaLP6 EiXay ydTGaLG·nobii<st.
Evij OL YuvaLLcES xatL r WoplTota cporaYOYnouv
r600 rnv EXX~aGLA ME Ta UEPtA TOG XdpDC
/12/
with grateful candles you'd think for weeks
God's face was shining there. He lifted yet another
taper and blew out its flame: the teller of tales
made off for Athens to compose
A moving novel about their tragic love and never saw
her again
But overnight she became the ruined unhappy heroine
of a thousand lustful dreams
Such that aesthetes and bored rich women dream and
wandered from place to place to return at last
comfortless and impenitent
To her village and the filthy leers of men, the com-
passionate jeers of wives and virgins
To live solitary and infamous in the house where you
you see her now.
All that was long ago. Day by remorseless day her
famed and troubling beauty crumbled into commemo-
rative moles, wrinkles and yellowing parchment skin
Anid the heartbreak of an old woman's toothless grin.
Now there isn't a villager, old or young, who doesn't
run up to embrace this hairy misshapen crone
with the wild gone look in her eyes
Anid the sour excremental smell that fills up her door-
way.
Not one who does not feel glad and right having some-
one whom daily he can forgive and pity
Or whose heart is not made proud to fix· her hoary andhumbled at the end of his benevolent stare;
Especially since the government itself is rumoured toallow her a small stipend to sit in the doorwayto be gawked at, an Aeschylean lesson for all Greeks,
Her fabled loveliness caught forever in a work of im-perishing art while her dying decrepit self,
A tourit attraction in the village, puts still moredrachmas in the merchants' tills.
Molibos, GreeceJuly 21, 1972
/13/
nou SappoU0sc nee yLa B60opdSe rou OeoU
niPE r6tE 0 6860 AAAo Ava xcpl xat r6'cBnoc
o napagu9dc 4 UYs yLa Inv ASiva va YPd@EL
Eva Uto8nua~Lo6 ~uu8LT6pnya yta Inv uydnn Tous
Lny rpaytxI Nat 6Ey rny EaudELds nLa
'Oume Excivn, ufoa ce Lut vUxra, Uetagop<PW80xE
oc Uta KGtECtOGu~v VB L GUCtuXLoU VB
Apoi6a XiAtmy Ad~yvoy ovEipoy
And xclva nou ato9nlic Nat BapucorngiEC HA ho-
Oces Yuvaixec oveLPcGoVrat NCGL REpthaGv -
9nXE s66 XL ENEi yLa vt yupiOEL GTO T 100anappy6pnrn xt avErav6nTo ~Oo XmPt6 Inc
Kat ora BpWlltxa 13huiagara rv av6p0v, aTL6
Gauxavtxic KopotSiEC OUSUYWV Nat Rap96vwv
va (60ctL u6vri xt allwoodynr Utoa cro oubtr
lOlTou tOpa In)v BA ~reT. 'O.at auld ylvav npty
an6 nohld XP6vta. Mkpa ye Lny avElinTO
uBpa n engtouivn xaL upoxAgroxi opopwtd
Kardppeuce a c aUvrauvnLxC~ xpe.atocAhLdc
putilse xaL 84plla xtTpovLdptxo nEpyaUnvicKaL To cuapabxd~p6to Xaudyelo Utag ~EEovrta-
oubvng YPndC.
'OAct OL kepLdreg, Viot xaL Y4pot, rpExouve
v'ayxahaadouv ry rpLXori raupagop<pUuivn
YPnd DE t'dYPLo acEaUtvo BAduua
Kat TOv ELyd BpOga and axa9apoleg nou E6EXhCLi
SEL an6 tOv nipTat TO.
'OXOL XaipovTat xat voiOouv dyoppa va'XOUVE
xdrtoLov nou uniopo6jv va ouyXwpoUy ua8nuei~-
PLyd Xat va AunožvTat. 'OOLo TouS vt68OUV
HEPned~VEtQ a av tny xap<pivouv yxptC6AEUXD xaL
TGRELvopivO RE TOV GLXy~ TOC OLh v9ponAC
Ilatrtd; rouC
IS(eg and 6T Rb~ OU BYAE 8 BPoya noC TO NpdTOG
Inc ixo@E Eva ULwpd EniGOga yLa va Rd9EtaL
aLgy adpra vt rny xaSEGouv, AtoXUActo
MdOnua yLa 61ouç rouc 'EhXnvEg. H napagu86vta
ovoppedac chSEat HXELogiVO yLa Ri.vTO
o'ive AgOapro 4pyO T XvOC, EVW O yEpaOM vOÇ
Eaur6g Lng Hou nECBalvet, ToupLTorOx abLo8£aTo
oro Xopod, PiXVEL HL BXhCC GpaXUit
ora raudia Loy candpoy.
/14/
S t ell a By Jacqueline Swartz
Why did you come backto sit in toothless doorwayswhile poets plant you scarletin geranium memory boxes.
I add up your legendechoing through the castlehigh above this very silver beachwhose waves rush inslink outwith slippery whispers of Sappho in eternity.
Listen...that woman breathed the same air,walked the same earth,loved.Her arms encouraged many bodies,some with breasts pointing at the moon.Centuries before youshe poured herself out of herself,gained famewhile you were for decades a half-living artifact,victim of a famous novel.
Then let these waves be witness
angry and everlasting,and let them ask you, Stella,why you ever did come backto the gossip and donkeysafter European uniiversitiesin whose musty librariesyou breathed so much freerthan here in this clear island air.Your life was too soon ended in these doorways,Stella, why not like Ulyssesreturn to leave again.Sappho too was compelled by these cliffsbut she flew from them,she grew wings Stella, I saw them still beating,
still beating.
Lesbos
/15/
ET r AA T arg ZaxEhiv COUd.prC+rtLlr YUPtECc
xaL ~adBEoL GE EE60VTLaaGgiv a XGTOWLGEVW noonvic oc qurEUouv Ahun~
as yAdoarpec uvAUnc ME yEpdvLa.
Avanoh<j lov UUoO cou
xa9<jç avrnxel iCaa cro xdorpo
n~ad, advw and roUrn tmy aonuviva axnd
6nou ta GU~ara opudlVE
xt ~EcYAUorPOUv orny ateveduraQ
ME TOUS OXLQPOGSO6 $LSGPOUG TEC ZaRWig.
'AxouGE...EXElv9 0 yUVaiwa avdaOtvs TOV i6LO
adpa,
RepudrnOE aoO i6LO X(I)IC,
aydunce~o.
Ta XdPta Inc 860aave Sdr000 OE nOhhA wOpULg,
MEPLMAL ME oT4GLa ROU GEIXvav TO WEyyApt.ALOVES uPov au6 o£va
EEy680xe an'rov Eaur6 Inc
tYLvE EGROUOT4
Evi E06 0009V vtt GE8%ETCES ~va ULOOEvtuvorexvoUpynua,
86u~a utac voutonivnc vou8&Aac.
AoLn6v, as ytvouv aurdr ta Gu~ara adprupec cou
oprocui~voL xaL navoronvoi,
xt ao'ra, Cr&AAa, va GE pot~aOUV
rt oro xaA6 48EhEC HGL y8ptaEC
ora xouraouoXoAdr xaL a ya'C806pta
vErd and ra navatorineLa Inc EupOnoc
us ros UouxLAnmoUiveC rous BLBXLoQ4xec
6nou avdoutveç r600 RLO EhE OEPtan'600 E6G$, O GuT6v rov xa9tp6 UnOL3TLxO
abpa.
H 50i cou TAAELoGE ROhU ypnyopt O'aUTA TG
xardw<h~a.
ErXtus, ylurl vcl QA yuplGELC uL Eaž
oav Tov OGuaEda upov (PUYELC EGvb.
KaL n Eanq45 ECXE UaYEUTEI aR6 TOUTG TG yXpERvA
ga EXElvB REaTEE,
C0yaXE prepo6yec TRs E16a va XTundve axdya,
va Xrundve ax6ua.-
/16/
+Irving Layton, one of the best-known Canadian poets,is the author of numerous collections of poetry. Hispoem stella is reprinted here from the book Lovers &L·esser Men (Toronto, 1973) . Jacqueline Swart z is anAmericani poet and journalist who now lives in Toronto.Both poets have had contacts with Greece which go be-yond the trodden tourist path. Ms. Swartz's stella isprinted here for the first time.
AxoUEL To veP6 aa va youpyoupiSLe Ba8tdv4ca cro xauxah6 tou. NLWEet Lo SEGTi KOPkItnc va t6ve LUaise CaCV xecode. MEwr6, Auye-p6 xaL vutxdro.tO NLOEL etO arp60mno tn yhu-xod SEoraced reV ~~POT&C0 HOP(POy ROU (OUhL-06vraL ~avo cro udayouX6 tou, x'n EuomSat. outtdve SahiSEL. Ca VdXEL to ap60mud Tou 0AxdHn-
po xedÉvo goa o'Éva nElipLO tpLataulduhO. A-x06EL tEV uap6La TEC ROU XtuRa $Guvta HaT GR6tn hard~ udouSitou, xaL Sappsi noC EivaL 0Sex4 tou n xap8td. Ta aiWard touc opuoOv Evd-vtLa, avsLxtumo6vrat,, Boovrdve tov 28tov dY-pOo puS11d, aa vt ouyxoLvGvncav EalpvLxd ot, ap-Inpiec touc. MLa aio8non Ipowepi, BiaLa Eumu-X CToIIvn,~O RouVE (pre tV To nVO.
From the end of Stratis Myrivilis's The Schoolmistresswith the Golden Eyes, H bacxdaha us a Xpood Mdv La
(ABriva, 1956) . This as. well as the other two majornovels by Myrivilis, Life in the Tomb and The MermaidMadonna, are available in English translation. On thework of Myrivilis, see article by G. Thaniel in the re-vised edition of Encyclopedia of World Literature inthe 20th Century (New York: F. Ungar Publ . Co. , 1983) ,Vol . 3, pp. 342-343.
/17/
From Thanasis Papathanasopoulos, Shelter for Prey(Athens, 1983). Trans. George Kirikopoulos.
Poems of the BodyIn memory of Dhimitris Dhoukaris whoprovided starting-points.
"No one chose his own body".Everyone chooses someone else's body.
The body is not a companionwith whom you may debate abstractly.Every moment it demands proof.
Bodies tangle well with each otherwhen their souls also tangle.
"The revolution of the Partysweat and blood".The revolution of the bodyblood and sweat.But when the Party changes its linethe body keeps on playing its old tune.
I am bored with the Iliad of the bodyNow I long for the Odyssey of dream.
Your body has become an iconand cannot hear;it has become a kind of religion and lives
differently.
/18/
The revolution of the bodyincurs the expenses of the other revolutionsand also quite a bit of toilet tissue.
Your body is behind the crystal.My heart is painting its iridescenceit will make a stained-glass windowfor its church.
Sail also over our riverfloating casket of the deluded Pharaohs;take with you our bodiesand passions of love.
From Leonidhas Bombas, Well, Then? (Montreal, 1980).Trans. George Kirikopoulos.
The Overcoat
This overcoat which I am wearingfits my measurements exactlyit has two buttonsand two causesthe one button wards off the cold of the seasonsthe other
protects me from the dampness of words.WhenI alone button up the coatI reach the slavery of freedom.Whenothers do it for me -whoever these may be--I cannot breathe.This coatwas a gift from my mother
/19/
and I must take careof its buttons.No matterhow much I may trythe coat stays on me--Was it nailed on my shoulders?Am I too timid to take it off?.I go on livingwith my mother's gift.
Daring
If it were possibleI would like to take down from the wardrobes of
memoryall those dust-covered recollectionswhichdo not come near the front door of my conscious
being.If it were possibleI would like to reverse my existential ambitionswhich are compromised with social formalitieswithoutthe consent of my unconscious mind.If it were possibleI would like to rebuild myself completelystarting with the experiences of my youthwhichoffer past, present, future, without boundaries.
/20/
From Dhimitris Sourvinos, An Oleander Branch (Corfu,1982). Trans. George Thaniel.
ZE~xtract)
Babylonians Asians Eurasianstravellers holydayers invadersroaming tourists in shortswith and without eyeglassesdoctors and burglarswith ominous, monstruous designsand undecipherable words of Latin originon their summer shirts.Also, exotic extraterrestrial womenwith bare breasts ready for handlinginside see-through blousesindigenous durable studspimps and mongers and petty traderssmall men charlatans
gaudy pushcarts with tired iconsof saints and martyrs and heroesof the Black-gowned Virginand of our last emperor Paleologoscoffeepots, frying-pans, and counterfeit coinssupposedly ancientand on the sidea yellowish photofrom the end of the 19th centurywith a general view of the town.
From Sotiris Trivizas, The Shell (Thessaloniki, 1982).Trans. George Thaniel.
Shaking off of Burdens
Yet I am not at all responsiblefor the pallor of my poemsin any case it would be uselessto explain why I move about invisible
/21/
orwhy I am specially vulnerableto the rhapsodies of crickets;nor do I mean to spend my timein sounding out conventionalitieslike the yearly arrival of autumnI would rather discussthe idiosyncrasies of our brainthat force us persistently and excessivelyto choose the superficial solutions;with no thought of how, thus,poetry loses its nerveand how one day we'll be buried alivein its subterranean intrigues.
Tabula Rasa
With your big snowy eyesI'll wait for you at the end of the roadbeneath the grey sole of the cityI'll love youas the night loves its consumptive moonin the room with the wrinkled wallsyou will receive my spermsearching deep inside my voiceyou will sleepan anonymous sleep.
From Orestis Alexakis, The Flash (Athens, 1983). Trans.Edward Phinney.
Knock
Who's there?-The living who departs.
Who is it?_The dead who returns.
/22/
The Poet Zoo
Like an abandoned dog who vainly searchesin God' s garbage can.
*****
Clean Monday*
Deep inside the eyes of the dead mana boyflieshis kite.
*First day of Lent.
*****
Anxi ety
I sinkinside
your fluidbody.
With whatwingscan I rise
to your light?
From Ilias Tsehos, The Passions which you Wear (Athens,1983) . Trans. George Thaniel.
What a Bookstore Says
days shelvesshelves with bookslinotyping pagination bindingthey cost a lot
books booksI am sick of these mirrors
/23/
I've just been back from the carpenter'shave ordered some shelvesI'll paint them red
when a book commits suicideI am the grave
I don't remember who said:"Af~ter men become godsbooks will be their abode".
*****
Revelation
yes, Patmos is ByzantineIt's solitarylike myself
when two days have passedyou want to flee to flee.
*****
To Forgetfulness or Remembrance
bare breasted mountains
my sea-clad eyes...
imagine! a juke boxand yet I had to, at Simi,on an October night,had to pick 4 songsa half-moonfresh small fish in the tavernfresh oblivion.
*****
Filings
sounds of the sea bluea Sifnian pitcher shows on her belly:you are thirstyan old table generous to Rebelsa spot in the sky like an eyefarmers' full-bodied fruits
sighs of pines
/24/
no loss of subdued colorsand their hum...hum...humming.
From Dhimitris Konidharis, The Conversationalists(Corfu, 1981).
Ox-cart
I am travellingtowards the environs of your laughteron an ox-cartand you become a windand vanish into the wind.
Lassi tude
Let's stopthis argumentativeconversationand let's putin our pained earssome cotton of music.
Penetration
At our meetingI watch the eyesto find out if they can seeI surprise you with reflections and flowersI please you with multi-colored birdsmeasure your deviationschisel at the diffidence of your mindand wait for your words
a voice from inside a well.
/25/
The Room
The room has become an arenafor quarrelsits few square metersencompassall the passions of the earth.Only the birdsthat come and go on the treesrespect each other's space.Man's lot is to suffocatein his relationstapping his neighbor's air.
From Maria Lagourelli, Was Exposed (Athens, 1983).Trans. Edward Phinney.
Position-seeking
She sits at the other endon the benchbeside meevery unbalanced afternoon.
A ball escapesfrom the childrennow and thenthe globerolls at our feeta severed head.
Thenthe bench becomes a see-sawI tiltI send into the airloose curves,two parentheses only,and many imperfect smiles.
When the see-saw tips toward the crazy old woman
/26/
she shares around to the crowd of children
slices of sweet mellon.
Come what may, come what may
some afternoon
I will take her place.
Not You
I often fall in love
with that which will leave me
and not feel regret.
I often fall in love
with that which evaporates me
to smell exquisitely
a bitter aroma
behind the earlobe of life
deaf to me.
TWO POEMS by NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS.
Trans. Martin McKinsey
Theano
the great Sages
with their warm
and handsome
bodies
under the graceful
folds
of their linen garments
appeared to me
through the windows of the Parisian cafe
and by means of gestures
asked
that I go meet them outside
/27/
the streetcobbles glistened under the late nightshower
reflecting lightsbright shapesand the headlamps of cars
I forgot to mention that this scene took placein Constantinople
somewhere in Xirokrini -- ear the ancient walls--and in fact that evening the local cinemahappened to be showingthe well-known filmPax tibi Marce Evangelista meus.
The Plateaus of Gold
in Gabonon the banks of the Ogouethey devised a maskand whosoever wears it
representsthe moon and the sunwhen the dance begins
for eyes they gave it a dovefor eyelashes the dove's complaintfor a mouth they gave it the name of Bolivarwhile a pit of red-hot coalsand tearsand the sacred relics of martyrsform its beardand the river Ogoue its comb and its love
now our boat coasts gently down the riverand the trees nod to us in greeting from the banksand against my breast I clutch themask
repeating Bithynian prayersand gently plun~ge my hand into the warm water
in the river deltasthe sharks look askance at usand withdraw
/28/
-sharks aren't the cuddling type--flying fishsoar about usat our command
depending on their shapesometimes the palmtreesare Paraskevas's* parasoland sometimes his fanwhen the dance begins
my bird15mybirdand alwaysEuthalia Athanasia Thamar CalliopeI love you.
*Friday's. Allusion to the story of Robinson Crusoe'by Daniel De Foe.
TWO POEMS by NIKOS KAVADHIAS. Trans.Donald M·. Hall
The Prayers of Sailors
Each night before going to sleep, Japanese sailorsFind an empty corner in the bowAnd mutely pray for a long time, kneelingBefore a Buddha, yellowed with age, bowing his head.
Wearing a nightshirt which almost reaches their feetAnd chewing rice, the ochre-yellow ChineseOffer their prayers in a high voiceWhile revering a smokey bronze pagoda.
With their serious, empty faces, the cooliesBend their knees and kow-tow.The Arabs slowly and rhythmically move their bodies
/29/
M/uttering charms against death.
Holding their arms outstretched,The Europeans pray ecstaticallyAnd quietly intone the Catholic hymnsThey learned as children in church.
And the Greeks, with their suffering faces,Cross themselves, as usual, before they go to bed,And beginning in a low voice, "Our Father...",Make a cross on their long dirty pillows.
Mal du De/part
I'll always be a devoted but helpless loverOf long voyages and azure seas.And one night, an ordinary night, I'll dieWithout breaking through the hazy line of the horizon.
The ships will depart proudly, as always,For Madras, Sinqanorc, Alpiers and Sfax,While I, bent eveir a desk covered with nautical charts,Will be entering figures in the books.
I'll stop talking anymore of long voyages.My friends will think I've forgotten them,And my mother, happy at last, will tell whoever asks,"It was just a boyish notion, but now it's passed."
But one night I'll see myself in a dream,Like a solemn judge, I'll ask myself why,And this trembling, worthless hand will grab a pistol,Take aim and fearlessly strike the offender down.
And I, who wanted so much to be buriedOne day in the deep sea of the far Indies,Will have a sad, common deathAnd a funeral like everyone else's.
I984 marks Toronto's 150th birthday E Ontario'sbicentennial.
June 1984 has been set aside for an InternationalFestival which will celebrate those two anniversa-ries. The scope of the Festival will be global,bringing together outstanding artists from Canadaand around the world. The musical and dance heri-
tage of mankind will be on display, from grand 0-pera to street concerts, from classical ballet topopular extravaganzas. Some of the performers: TheNational Ballet of Canada, New York's MetropolitanOpera, The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, KathakaliDancers of India, Jon Vickers, Maureen Forrester,Placido Domingo, Cuba's Leo Brouwer, Japan's SankaiJuku, guitarist John Williams, Dance Theater ofHarlem._
O XT n 'c TIFrM E E' TH Er~cA M O 8 PAK H E
(MLHp6 OSLoonoptKd IoiAtoG 1983)
TOU rLWpyou bavt6A
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Aj HovLd. TLa to 8uorrp60tro rou vnoLoii 9c EiXE ifOe oU6@ni
rou rov Advo rou AvrL<yxvmn "Heai rev Cauo8pdxetv 06pou" (De-
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mor600, rrhoioa anYalya vEpd Nat, odugl<ova UE xdnOLov AAAXOv
apxalo Ireherndr 46YaSe acoCenula N>EIIUL<.
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(6rot, >(L ex6Un EAQLKH,. ov6uabty Ot aoXaioL To Douv6 TOU
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in ye:wXovoudi odoraonl rnc Calo8pdxng. Tov nhou Uou cpatSpU-
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/33/
Baon orny AACEav8poUnoAn waL 8a XopioouuE hiYo uETA sny
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xtadp>a rou, raL xuraxiSvmouv iluSi, yta xdURnOGEg udnEC,
oro vnioi rev asuedneyw.
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T6oco anrou6vixoc ni x0pa. cro utwn6 meeFvelo ri nnc Arsila
/34/
uta uEpivTLOG ouSAtb uE ULa vit nOU WGivETGL vTuuv vB La
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Hard ra uÉon sou 'Esoou. E86 niqTouv xduL oray6veg.
ruplSwa rny Kagaptitroca xQL Byaivw atol Sdaccaa. Aev dEXL
6AtLo, orny apxrS rouAhdXLrov, wla to vep6 EivaL Geord. Ta
B6Toaha yovrpd, 66ioxoXa yLa ra rrEAg~ara. AHouUn OE oyta
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cDiouç rouC. AAAAd Lnopel Va adeo xtat YLa 6ppoetoaLY13pdog.
I ; PPalaeopois'· "~· Sanctuary *_
Karnarioti * ..-- *of the Great Gods" saboutraCc~hora*
· Christos Monasteryi Alonia *Mt. Fingari o
Xeropotamo a (1676 m./5500 ft.) AoMra
.4 Profitis Elias
f Lakoma
SPanavia Kremniotissa
Kremasto
pos\0 Nero
/35/
'EExe uall rou wduata BLBhia va StcB~aBdoe AEi.Ba6(ir,
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/ 36/
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nepnar<j ouvohLtd uLaduton <jpa, xt 6tay ordve rov or6xo you,,
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orov REOL`FptyUivO TOUG XWpo. nLo Xaankd,· Ta Hx6KxtVa (EPtLUl-
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av upince, xdnoLov UUoUxL6 r6P8to SCOU6. Tra MuOTiptG TOC aO"
/37/
XalaG EalloSpdunel Staxpivovray Sio ordbta, To updro, i7 Ui>r-
on, NaL To SGErapo, 0 ETLOTriTC. XSEÇ GLdaSGO( TO OXETLH<
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/39/
To dyahua inc, Ni>cng, nou FEnv4ELSa nipoi. (6Xt HaA\d c>rtou6-
vo, I.ou <edunxE) oTO HEcDahb0HaG Ou T lOU AOpOU, BECiOONS oTG
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rou, NiNavaou rou Koho<gOvLou, arr'To nEptB6ris a o rp a-
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Niuav8pog utAd Yta To QnpIO Rou S o E U E L To EtonVL-
xd updBaara, ra x TCA.a uI i X a, ora Bouvdl rinc auo9pd-
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or'ausi pac Bdvauou roVtn n wou86vra, 6ues aduoo an'rouE av-
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/40/
rp6no rou, ato9inxtud. AAh*auL6 chvat dhAo 864a. Ti Sd'AsEY
dDays o lop6dyncS oriy EOCRTmonr auTi) O EapuaBirouc: rrt8v6v
v'ayn8060cUo us aur6s orny "npoyovonhnEla" rnc NiHne, us o
K6vroyhou vd.'BaSE orn 9don Inc ULa BuSavrov4 ELxdva. KQt kd-
noLog 6i1iuoc ona66ç rou ledvvni rou xpuoooronlou oa Unropožo0s
vt HouvlSoEL TCO KE(DAAL TOUr UROTOv900CCOVTag T~O llMaTGL6TOC
staratoriiry..." ornl 84a rou axpwrnpLatu~oyou aydhluaroc. NaL,
nl Nix) srnc raLlo8pdxnç eXEL TOUs rrL9aoijO6 avrlTAG TEC. ALarTO-
pEL, duoc, wdunoooan'Ta cprepd Inc. Aev EivaL, 6,TL NL uV nEL6,
dul o n . KcinOS ÉaTL 9a TAChELWvE Iny\ oxWEIï n Toirn o r.
Iadvvou .
Euvavr6S ndAt ro xond80L r'apvld ri5v Wra (ward Lo uocony ot)
nou rralpym To 6p6uo rinc ErrLOToo Ag YLa Lrnv KaLlaptLtjroa . To
Boox6noul~o dxat rWpa rin yxAfroa rou orouÇ Gllouc xat r'ap-
vtd rou nDooaro8vE advo ora xahluta Inc axcouLahLde, oe 860
ownrvOLELiEC oXnluarlo Uoig oa vt OdXvouv YLa voultoguTa, acDoU
ro yoprdpL Eivat sEXE hELOA, OXEiiV avUnaOXTO. CE X YO, TO
/41/
C·bAiu utoo yiou vt StuoXiIouv rtny docDaXTo not va po8oXoijv
orny nAaved.
bEy XExe CodL Tny gou AcemopEio ahXd Nat 8cy dxo anond va
nepu~aLrow adhL 6Aa autd la xLL6UETpa. O PouoW Uac d<gaGE
orCEe E o ol y a OEL C ïou 6va EYRAULO TEC HO~
OElaç KGL EivaL yvooTi nwc crhOvLOC HUPtOhENrLHd UE Ta n6-
Sta rin Iaulia xtaL rn EhDEsia. 6Cv ECnUt T600 popuvrLwds.
Edumw ro 06ula rou wroocr6nr aL to rpiro a)LdEL nou neepdr, oare
Iard xaL usE naipVEL. O OÔTnY6 6 EiVaL CahOVLHL66r ItTXaVLH6C
onou8ayuivocg ornyv Imlia >tai Bonesdr b cas or noto ePYO. · E-
XEL ORpet not Iny oLxoyeV6Lod rou aro vnot, rov nEPtuiVOUv
ornu KautptitorL. EE ACyo, xdmoLog &AAoG Tou xdVEL obvtdAo.
ElvaL o lop6dync uoU xeXt Haraounvio~Ln ao n£pa an'rny Ha-
AboUmohn xut nrou adeL ora uayaSLd yLa v'ayopdoct xovo4pBec.
An'6,rt AACL, WaiVCTGL nWÇ XL n UovaEtd. rou ni TEL, 660,
860xHohr. 'Oray <prdvouue oro AcadveI axoUO STy IraI(IKI5 yvai-
ta. Lou CahovLxtou va drnAdvet ro OTCylla Inc. Siarm qui , AfeE.
"KL EuclC E6ž EEMtOTC", 1 EL EWECVOÇ.
H axuLvoBo~aa Inc eOoauXoviHne advo orny Lauoo8dun nalpves
HL dhhce lloC><p6 EaXovtxL6C aF)onotL6c nou 4xuIvETE Ta. R(~
rou oLn rEpuavia Xpara URap-vTLoHOT4x orny Kagaptinuea To
xakoxaiL.t To ïSoI)uxu6E Tou wuraotl5uaroÇ nailet Suvard,. nap
6Ao nou 6EcyXE QWet adn EXaREiQ. Up4TO ~pap nOU AVOLEE Gi-
uepa, y>4ToÇ, Hat ro "ocluard vrouadn" >CdvetXP57 xoinEXdanT.
Mapoord~ oro unap, orny axt4, rÉaGEpa n vrE ~aGOTLMA "nO6 -
Xurua" ERLGLOpSOvOvTtt an6 CuoTaXk v6O rrou O apTronL6C-URG-
plorac s UE ov VE6TEO GiEhA ro XOUv YOV pOOld8EL yL GUT~ TO
SouAcod. Mou nodv>oov oJulknona7 YLa La nayHdoULa nogoBA5uara,
HL o ivag TOUS RLOTEGEL R0C 0 OLMOVORLKi wplan CivaL @TLaXT .
Ta undA~a rpaor! XMet.
/42/
'Eva upmo9UOTpo, wat xduOtEc avaAoyieg. UpOra By4xav OL on-
IICLWOCLC MOU Tggl El avou XL ij0tCpa aurEç .6o.2 KL 6use, ornyv
CauoSpdxy Bp£8nxa axpLBOc &va Uva upty af'rny Elevo. Tat-
PodCouv, 0ordoo, dAAa oTOLXEia. CTo HQ6a8 vtGr a 600 vOOLA
&MELva givO 6va ELMOO~LItpdPapo Kat roy 860 vnotijv ra ov64tra
apxiSouv and "a". O Nixos raBpLdA HevrLxnc~ 9a ra up6oexe au-
td. Na rou S(ndoo va you ta UnmapL8udoet vta va 80UpE Ti Ut-
YLxd updyllara 9a Byouv...
10apvcc Cva o80ooydoOL ayx6AEG EivaL aR6
uiva.
2HppA. EBH ECTIFMEE' THE EIGNOY, nIEPto8. H6pqupac 20 (aex*. 1983).
/43/
(from p. 4)
in Greece and broadened her experience on the Greek
stage before coming to Canada a few years ago.
4. A cultural afternoon sponsored by the communaute'
He'llbnique de Montrial on Sunday, January 22, 1984, at
the newly-built Community Center included the presen-
tation of Greek writers of Montre'al, a lecture on Cava-
fis and Kazantzakis by Prof. G. Thaniel (invited for
the occasion), a ballet piece on Cavafis's poem "Voices"
interpreted by Iro Valaskaki-Tembek, and an exhibition
of Greek books by Greek-Canadian writers published ei-
ther in Greece or in Canada. In connection with the le-
cture on Cavafis and Kazantzakis musical pieces by Ha-
djidakis and Moutsis (based on poems by Cavafis) and
two excerpts from the B. Martind opera The Greek Pas-
sion (based on Kazantzakis) were also aired.
5. The Committee on Hellenic Studies of Princeton
University sponsored a conference on "Modern Greek Li-
terature and the University Curriculum" on April 13 G
14, 1984. Prof. G. Savidis spoke on "The Tragic Vision
of George Seferis" (in connection with the exhibition
"George Seferis: Editions of a Nobel Laureate"), Prof.
E. Keeley on "The Literary Accomplishment of Myodern
Greece: Two Years of Course Development at Princeton",
several panelists discussed "Instruction in Modern
Greek Literature: Problems, Constituencies and Opportu-
nities in American Higher Education", "Modern Greek Li-
terature in Language Courses and Graduate Education:
Building for the Future", "Modern Greek Literature in
Search of a Home: The Relation with Established Disci-
plines".
6. The Hellenic-Canadian Federation of Ontario (head-
ed by Prof. Sp. F1engas of the University of Toronto)
held its third provincial conference, on March 16, 17,
and 18, 1984, on "Multiculturalism and Education", at
the Holiday Inn (Downtown), Toronto. There were various
reports and workshops on several aspects of multicultu-
ralism and education, including the Ontario Heritage
Language Program. The guest speaker at the Dinner, on
March 17, was M\ir. Philip Deane Gigantes, recently ele-
/44/
eted to the Canadian Senate, while Prof. St. Triantisof the University of Toronto was the keynote speakerat the luncheon on March 18.
7. The Greek Students Association of the Universityof Toronto had another active year, organizing or part-icipating in various functions: the poetry reading ofKaterina Anghelaki-Rooke, the anniversary of 'Polite-hnio', Hallowe'n and New Year's Day, InternationalStudent Week, showings of Greek movies, excursion toHart House Farm, an annual dance, and a lecture withslides on Lord Byron and the Greek Revolution (givenby Prof. G. Thaniel). The Greek Cypriot Students Asso-ciation sponsored special activities and (with helpfrom the community) mounted an exhibition of books,posters and artifacts from Cyprus at the John RobartsLibrary of the University of Toronto (April 3-28, 1984).
8. WE HAVE BEEN BORN IN TWO FATHERLANDS (Evels ceSo ILatpl~se revvnO4xtuc)l was the significant ti-t1e of a performance of music, dance and theater, givenunder the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture andwith support from several local groups at the TorontoMusic Hall, on April 11, 1984. Mary Soulis, currentlystudying Greek at the University of Toronto, wrote themusic on lyrics by Antonis Mihailidhis, a musician ba-sed in Toronto. Both, Soulis and Mihailidhis, executeda number of songs with the accompaniment of other localmusicians, while other people acted out several skitson the theme of immigration and still others performedfolk dances. The songs with a commentary are availablein a cassette which bears the title LrTpayoU8GLa Tng~
ALaonopdg.
RE VIE WS
A. Lily Macrakis and P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, NewTrends in Modern Greek Historiography (New Haven,Conn.: Modern Greek Studies Association, 1982). Pp.xiv+209. Paper.
New Trends in Modern Greek Historiography is acollection of eighteen of the papers read at the thirdModern Greek Studies Association Seminar conducted atAnatolia College in Thessaloniki (the previous two, oncontemporary Greek literature and on the problems ofcontemporary Greek education, were held in 1973 and 19-80 at Poros). The endeavor was a multi-national one.The focus on questions of method and comparative appro-aches was unprecedented since in Greece to date no tra-dition of historiographical dialogue is evident. Histo-rians in Greek universities have had a particular, wellspecified role. As William McGrew poignantly points outin his Introduction (p. xi), "It was tacitly understoodthat they were keepers of the hallowed traditions con-cerning Hellenism and the rise of the modern Greek na-tion. As the tiny and impoverished state expanded in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a suc-cession of tumultuous encounters with its Moslem andSlay neighbors, professors of history accepted thecharge of representing these events in ways which ser-ved the higher interests of the nation. They helpedforge a national orthodoxy to oppose the threats fromabroad." In addition, the particular organizationalstructure of Greek universities kept insights that mighthave been gained from sociology, economics, psychology,and political science at a discreet distance from therespectable discipline of history. There was a tendencyto concentrate on the study of foreign impacts on Greekhistory rather than the equally valid and interestingstudy of the interrelations of Greeks among themselvesand especially their history during the Ottoman Turkishoccupation. Within the last twenty years or so therehave been new approaches introduced to modern Greekhistoriography, especially the Marxist, which seems tohave made wide inroads among the literate classes and
/46/
threatens to become the new orthodoxy.
The seminar itself provided the means for view-ing what is happening in this field among those whosetraining is quite diverse (political scientists, so-ciologists, economists, folklorists, and historians)and who are relatively young scholars working outsidethe "establishment." Dr. McGrew's words in this re-
gard are well put: "This seminar, then, was an attemptto stand back and have a look at what those who have
sought to chart Greece's recent past have accomplished,to see how much of the map has been illuminated, wherethe contour lines are clear, and where gaps or areas ofdarkness remain" (pp. xiii-xiv). The chronological li-mits set were the Turkish occupation on the one handand World War II on the other--roughly 1453 to 1945.
The authors and titles of papers are as follows:Maria-Aliki Kyriakidou-Nestoros , "Oral H-istory and
Folklore"; Paschalis M. Kitromilides, "Historiographi-cal Interpretations of Modern Greek Reality: Ani Explo-ratory Essay"; Costas Hatzidimitriou, "From Paparrigo-poulos to Vacalopoulos--Modern Greek historiography inthe Ottoman Period"; Vasilis Dimitriadis, "The TurkishArchives in Thessaloniki and their Importance for theStudy of Greece during Turkish Rule" (in Greek); JohnAlexander, "The Klephts of the Morea: An Historiogra-phic Essay"~; John S. Koliopoulos, "'Enemy of the Nat-ion': Attitude towards Brigandage in Nineteenth Centu-ry Greece"; William W. McGrew, "Greek Economic Histo-riography for the First Part of the Nineteenth Century"Georgios Anastasiades, "Interpretations of Nineteenth-century Constitutional History" (in Greek); ChristosHadziiosif, "Greek Merchant Colonies and IndependentGreece: Problems and Interpretations" (in Greek); A.Lily Macrakis, "Eleftherios Venizelos in Crete, 1864-1910: Thie Main Problems"; George Mavrogordatos, "~Par-ty and Society in Modern Greece"; S. Victor Papacosma,"The 190)9 Ghoudhi Revolt: The Ongoing Debate"; Victo-ria Solomonidis, "Greece in Asia Minor 1919-1922: AHistoriographic Survey"; Thanos Veremis, "EconomicProblems of the Pangalos Regime, 1925-26, and the Cur-rent State of Related Research"~; J. G. Joachim, "Wri-ting the Biography of John Metaxas: A Historiographi-
/47/
cal Essay"; Hagen Fleischer, "The Last Round of theCivil War: Developments and Stagnation in Historio-
graphy Concerning Axis-Occupied Greece, 1941-1944";Lars Baerentzen, "The Liberation of Greece, 1944:Certainties and Uncertainties"; and Procopis Papastra-tis, "The Anglo-Soviet Balkan Agreement and Greece: AHistoriographical Approach." There is a section at theend of the volume identifying the contributors and theprogram schedule of the seminar has been convenientlyreproduced, but there is no bibliography and no index.
Certainly New Trends in Modern Greek Historiographydeserves the attention of every serious student of mo-dern Greek history. The volume is seminal and unique.No matter what one's ideological position is, he isgoing to find this work an indispensable resource forthe study of modern Greek history.
-- John E. Rexine
Colgate UniversityHamilton, New York
Regina Pagoulatou, Transplants. Translated by A. N.Athanasakis. Cover E Drawings by Despo MLagoni (NewYork: Pella Publ. Co., 1982). Pp. 63. Paper.
A native of the island of Cephalonia who has pu-blished five books of poetry and four books of proseand essays, Regina Pagoulatou is herself a "transplant"who has given talks in New York and Boston, has appearedon radio and television, and written for Greek-Americannewspapers in New York City. The title of her latestcollection of poems is highly personal but at the sametime very Greek. She uses the imagery of the biologi-cal transplant to underscore the sociplogics·a-lan cul-tural transplantation experienced by all of those-who have left the Old World for the New World. Thetwenty-five poems in this book very ably, though notalways closely, translated by Prof. Athanasakis of theClassics Department in the Univ. of California at Santa
/48/
Barbara, offer us a vivid impression of a poet whoasserts:
I wish to bemistress of the Word.I do not wish the word to be my master.This is why I hatch it out inside meand shape itso that when it comes outthe word will be white like an eggand limpid,like lighton the day of Creation.
(Poem "Arguments")
Regina Pagoulatou is very much mistress of herwords. She reveals a sensitive person who is deeplyrooted in her own ethnic and cultural past and at thesame time is very much aware of the struggle withinherself to come to grips with the complex Americanscene of which she is now a willing part, albeit ago-nizingly so. Every line of her poetry is filled withunusual directness, provocative imagery, and painfulhistory. In the poem "Transplantations" which givesthe direction for the rest of the poems in the colle-ction, she says:
Mother Earth, with my nails I pulled outmy roots,
roots held by two grains of your soiland wrapped in the protection of a damp
sackcloth,ready for the transplantamong the ethnic minorities,carrying in my loins the Ark of the Covenantand, sure in its sheath, the double-edged
knife, the cleaver of sundering.
Land of dream, of rejection of paradox,from the primer of DeuteronomyI learned to read the oracles of my second
fa therland.
My grafted euphoria branches out
through New York's steel latticework,
/49/
refracting my .inner light into billionsof particles
the inner light, which is nothing moreor less
than my primordial root;your own womb, O Mother Earth!
Pagoulatou's poetry is not a poetry of despair,nor is it a poetry of uncritical optimism; it is apoetry that, as she herself says, tries "to walk thetight-rope/ between concern and indifference." It isa poetry of self-examination and moral awakening, asAthan Anagnostopoulos has rightly pointed out in hisbrief assessment cited by the publisher on the backcover of the collection.
Transplants shows a poetic talent at work. Thethirteen full page color illustrations by Despo Ma-goni add to the appeal of this bilingual edition ofa remarkable Greek-American poet.
-- John E. Rexine
Colgate UniversityHamilton, New York
Takis Antoniou, First Trilogy. Translated by M. B.Raizis (Athens: Epopteia Publications, 1980). Vols.I G II. Illustrated. Cloth; Genesis and Death CinGreek7 (Athens: No Publ. or date indic.). Illustrated.Cloth; Judas the Son of Rovel L'in Greek7' (Athens: Ima-
go Editions, 1982). Illustrated. Cloth; Epigrams JinGreek_7 (Athens: Imago Editions, 1983). Illustrated.Cloth; Der Aufstand der Toten (The Revolution of the
Dead). Greek-German. Translated and introduced bySpyros Bokos and Lorenz Wilkens (Berlin: Publica, 1984)Paper. Also, Views on the work of Takis Antoniou. Greek
English. Translated by M. B. Raizis (Athens: EpopteiaPublications, 1980) . Illustrated. Cloth.
Rarely has this reviewer seen such a lavishly
produced array of books by and about a modern poet.
/so/
As a consequence, it is easy enough to be distractedfrom the poetic and verbal content by the art work,the printing, the colors, the very production of thebooks themselves. There is no question that these pu-blications have been spared no expense in their pro-duction and the intent is to present the poet in thebest way possible. What is also clear is that whatwe have is essentially a nihilist poet whose highereducation was subsidized by the Greek Orthodox Church,who earned a theology degree, served as preacher ofthe Attica and Megara Metropolis, and, again with sup-port from the Church, pursued the study of philosophy,Byzantine and modern Greek literature in Germany, ser-ved in the Greek army, traveled in Switzerland, Italy,Denmark, and Sweden, as well as Holland, Belgium, Lu-xemburg, Germany, Yugoslavia, and Austria before re-turning to Greece to teach and work. He married aWest Berliner, Barbara Schulz, had two children, foundedthree travel organizations, continued to travel in We-stern Europe and always took the opportunity to studyin Germany. He has studied the Gnostics, Western my-stics and the mysticism of Oriental religions. His con-stant return to Germany would suggest that he drawsconsiderable inspiration from his German sources (phi-10sophic, religious, poetic). Everything in his workswould seem to suggest that he is professionally verysuccessful but one who has rejected his Christian faith.
Over the years 1976-1978, Antoniou presented anumber of German poets to the Greek public throughthe magazine Tomes and published three books of hisown verse, In the Beginning Was Naught; Cycle of Deathand Birth; and The Revolution of the Dead. His concernwith Death, whom he calls "'herd-master of uncultivatedestates"', is constant in those three books. The materi-al can be found in translation in the two volumes ofFirst Trilogy.
Judas the Son of Rovel is another beautifully pro-duced book that reproduces a post-Byzantine manuscriptwhich Antoniou bought some 25 years ago in Munich. He
has published the text with an apparatus criticus and
/51/
reproductions in color of the manuscript pages, a pa-raphrase of the text by the Patriarch Germanos of Con-stantinople, and a description of the codex. The factthat Judas is the subject of the manuscript and Anto-niou now publishes it would seem to complete Antoniou'srejection of his former piety:
And in one brutal Lordson of maninseparable from timeand thundering,born to guard the futurewithout tendernessand without expected joys.
The latest volume of Antoniou's poems publishedin Greece contains a variety of poems in a variety ofmodes and moods. Epigrams derives its title from thesmall collection of epigrams that constitute the firstpart of the volume.
A horseriding angelwrote my word on water.
He forgot his caneat the door of my house.
Death drizzles at the windows.
MU dreams dwellbehind their panes.
The other six sections are categorized as "Mental","Gnostic","Erotic", "Participatory", "The Seven Facesand the Seven Sins", and "Supplement". They containshort self-contained poems, somewhat positive in out-look but still biting and pointed.
Antoniou's use of biblical and ecclesiastical for-mats to convey the the very opposite meaning of theChristian tradition is well illustrated by "'The Sup-pliant" (a poem in The Revolution of the Dead):
Blessed are the godsfor theirs is the k~ingdom. of the heavens.
Blessed are the dead
/52/
for theirs is the kingdom of nothing.
Blessed are the peacemakers~for they shall be called the sons of thunder.
Blessed are the poorfor they shall inherit death.
Blessed are the torturersfor they shall be entreated.
Blessed are the violatorsfor they shall be granted mercy.
Blessed are the impure in heartfor they will dominate the earth.
Certainly Antoniou's obsession with death is notmerely the inheritance of a contemporary world in whichdeath is omnipresent in the daily news but a very anci-ent Greek concern:
In my heart I shelterthe poverty of euthanasia
and I've never wonin the darkness of death.
I circulate in your bloodwi th broken legs
mouth of silenced announcementimmovable in timeeven in eternity
and I expect the neighbor's laughand the love of the sunto brood over my vanity.
Takis Anton`iouls poetry asks the contemporaryreader to take a sharp, critical look at the modernworld and its time-honored traditions. Like Kazantza-kis, Antoniou confronts the abyss, describes and embo-dies it in his poetry, challenges it, and writes crea-tively as a "triumphanit spectator...of the great bu-rial", to quote his critic A. Karandonis.
The opinion of Karandonis on the poetry of Anto-niou as well as the criticism of other people, like
/53/
Prof. M. B. Raizis, Th. Frangopoulos, Nikos Spanias,D. Poulakos and others, can be read in the views booklisted above. Karandonis has said of the books by An-toniou that they seem to call to the reader:
"Look at us, leaf through us; at the endyou won't remain indifferent. We have some-thing to tell you, too, something to informyou about." Truly, these voices aren't wrongat all. Only they have to find the right kindof ears to listen to them. And I consider thisa bit difficult because the language, the dia-lect, and the diction that Takis Antoniou uses,in general, devour the poetic-sensitivity or-gans of those who equate poetry to smoothness,good taste, and the normal feeling of langu-age that we have.
Prof. Raizis is careful to qualify his assessmentof Antoniou's poetry:
... like all major satiric writers, or absurd-ists...this poet and his utterance in the be-ginning sound negative. The more you read andlisten to them, though, the more you realizethat behind the statement "in the beginning wasnaught," an affirmative answer is implied, that,because of that reason exactly, the thinkingman became serious and applied himself to put-ting order and a human touch to the chaoticand absurd phenomenon of life.
-- John RexineCol·ate UniversityHiamiilton, New York
/54/
WOLS. Piimata. Parousiasi. Metafrasi [Poems. Presen-tation. Translation7. E. C. Gonatas (Athens: Kastanio-tis, 1983). 160 pages.
Among the translations that inundate the Greek mar-ket only few stand out and the aforementioned book isone of those few. Wols (pen name of Alfred Otto WolfgangSchulze) wrote his epigrammatic poems in French and isalso known for his expressionist drawings and paintings.He was a maudit--a descendant, as such, of Gerard deNerval and a precursor of Jack Kerouak--and made no dis-tinction between art and life, dying rather young in1951. Gonatas first dealt with Wols's work twenty yearsago. In this handsome volume, we find an introductorynote, a photo of Wols playing a mandolin, sixty "poemsand aphorisms" by Wols p~f which the last twenty arestill unpublished in the original! and have been trans-lated by Gonatas from a copy of a Wols manuscript, whichthe mother of the poet, Eva Schulze, had graciously gi-ven himl7 brief articles on Wols by Marcel Brion, GretyWols (the widow of Wols), Jacques Lassaigne, and a lon-ger informative essay by Gonatas himself. The last partof the book includes drawings by Wols and photos takenby him. This material can be understood best in conne-ction with Wols's verses:
(The words are chameleonsmusic is rightly abstractthe knowledge that everything is unex-
plainable leads us todream)
(I see means: I close my eyes)****
/55/
'O av0goonos -Jord~ zov di OZr pd0etF v(b 7CErde( obvi
rd xov;r,
(Man will never learn to fly like a bird
swim like a fish
if only within reality [imagination])
Sub specie of all the original things said by writers
and artists of this century, Wols's pronouncements may
sound slight, but this is precisely what makes Gonatas'sdiligence and care in his presentation of Wols to Greekreaders all the more remarkable.
-- George Thaniel
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SYMPOSIUMMonday, January 16 - Saturday, January 21, 1984
TALKS, FILMS, EXHIBITS, CONCERT
Splendourof
Ii-t iies
**d
/ Ev2oyea<p~le K. II'eluppaninovAioz
1983 was also the 40th anniversary of the death ofKOSTIS PALAMAS lest we have forgotten. g=~k*gggy
THIS PUBLICATION* IS
NOTFOR
SALE
Editor: G. Thaniel