Sunday, September 18, 2005

Deadline in Athens

The Independent said this about Petros Markaris's The Late-Night News (UK title) or Deadline in Athens (US title):

It took a while for Athenian cop Inspector Haritos to reach us, but raise a glass of ouzo now he's here. A gridlocked winter Athens is the far-from-mythical setting for linked tales of murder at the top (the TV elite) and toe (Albanian migrants) of new Greek society. Strongly written, slyly plotted, spiced with drolly satirical sidelights - Markaris is a crime writer to cheer and cherish.

The things that dazzle the barbarians.

Reading about the premiere of Philip Glass's opera Waiting for the Barbarians in Erfurt, Germany on September 10 (which has already been added to the Wikipedia reference! speedy!), I was reminded that I had read Cavafy in Greek before I arrived in Greece.

Glass's opera is based on JM Coetzee's book of the same title, a title borrowed from Constantine Cavafy's poem "Waiting for the Barbarians".

So I took some time this morning to read it again; in both English and Greek.

Waiting for the Barbarians

By Constantine Cavafy (1864-1933), translated by Edmund Keeley

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.

~~~

Περιμένοντας τους βαρβάρους - Κ.Καβάφης

- Τι περιμένουμε στην αγορά συναθροισμένοι;

Είναι οι βάρβαροι να φθάσουν σήμερα.

- Γιατί μέσα στην Σύγκλητο μια τέτοια απραξία;
Τι κάθοντ' οι Συγκλητικοί και δεν νομοθετούνε;

Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
Τι νόμους πια θα κάμουν οι Συγκλητικοί;
Οι βάρβαροι σαν έλθουν θα νομοθετήσουν.

- Γιατί ο αυτοκράτωρ μας τόσο πρωϊ σηκώθη,
και κάθεται στης πόλεως την πιο μεγάλη πύλη
στον θρόνο επάνω, επίσημος, φορώντας την κορώνα;

Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
Κι ο αυτοκράτωρ περιμένει να δεχθεί
τον αρχηγό τους. Μάλιστα ετοίμασε
για να τον δώσει μια περγαμηνή. Εκεί
τον έγραψε τίτλους πολλούς και ονόματα.

- Γιατί οι δυο μας ύπατοι κ' οι πραίτωρες εβγήκαν
σήμερα με τες κόκκινες, τες κεντημένες τόγες·
γιατί βραχιόλια φόρεσαν με τόσους αμεθύστους,
και δαχτυλίδια με λαμπρά, γυαλιστερά σμαράγδια·
γιατί να πιάσουν σήμερα πολύτιμα μπαστούνια
μ' ασήμια και μαλάματα έκτακτα σκαλιγμένα;

Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
και τέτοια πράγματα θαμπόνουν τους βαρβάρους.

- Γιατί κ' οι άξιοι ρήτορες δεν έρχονται σαν πάντα
να βγάλουνε τους λόγους τους, να πούνε τα δικά τους;

Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
κι αυτοί βαρυούντ' ευφράδειες και δημηγορίες.

- Γιατί ν' αρχίσει μονομιάς αυτή η ανησυχία
κ' η σύγχυσις. (Τα πρόσωπα τι σοβαρά που εγίναν).
Γιατί αδειάζουν γρήγορα οι δρόμοι κ' η πλατέες,
κι όλοι γυρνούν στα σπίτια τους πολύ συλλογισμένοι;

Γιατί ενύχτωσε κ' οι βάρβαροι δεν ήλθαν.
Και μερικοί έφθασαν απ' τα σύνορα,
και είπανε πως βάρβαροι πια δεν υπάρχουν.

Και τώρα τι θα γένουμε χωρίς βαρβάρους.
Οι άνθρωποι αυτοί ήσαν μια κάποια λύσις.

~

Earlier when I wrote that I'd read Cavafy in Greek, it was a little lie. The poems were actually read to me by a Greek musician who'd given me Cavafy's collected poems in two volumes as a birthday gift. We sat in a cafe in Sydney and he read me his favourite poems and he translated, with his his reasonably proficient English, the bits I didn't understand.

I now remember that even earlier than that, another Greek musician, gave me a Greek copy of Plato's Symposium. While I've read it in English, I've yet to read it in Greek.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Ignorance : Η 'Αγνοια

So, one of the first books I read (in full) in Greek was a book I could not read in English at that precise time because it was translated from the French into Greek before it was translated into English. And that book is Milan Kundera's Ignorance, or Η 'Αγνοια του Μίλαν Κούντερα.

I read it in Greek in December, 2001 and it became available for English readers after that. I think early 2002?

I still only have a Greek copy of this book and often want to quote segments of it to friends and I'm forced to do a rough translation in order to do that. Which is frustrating.

So, reading my first entire novel in Greek, not a Greek novel, but learning about Greek. I read the Greek to learn about nostalgia, a Greek word.

From Kundera's Ignorance:

Στα αρχαία Ελληνικά η επιστροφή λέγεται νόστος. 'Αλγος σημαίνει πόνος. Νοσταλγία είναι λοιπόν ο πόνος που προκαλεί σε κάποιον η ανικανοποίητη λαχτάρα της επιστροφής.
...

Στην αυγή του αρχαιοελληνικού πολιτισμού γεννήθηκε η Οδύσσεια, το θεμελιώδες έπος της νοσταλγίας. Ας υπογραμμίσουμε: ο Οδυσσέας, ο κατεξοχήν άνθρωπος της περιπέτειας όλων των εποχών, είναι και ο κατεξοχήν άνθρωπος της νοσταλγίας. Πήγε (χωρίς να το πολυθέλει) στον πόλεμο της Τροίας, όπου έμεινε δέκα χρόνια. Έπειτα θέλησε να γυρίσει γρήγορα στη γενέτειρά του την Ιθάκη, αλλά οι μηχανορραφίες των θεών παρέτειναν την περιπλάνηση του, στην αρχή για τρία χρόνια, γεμάτα από τα πιο αλλόκοτα γεγονότα, κι έπειτα για άλλα εφτά χρόνια, που τα πέρασε, όμηρος και εραστής, κοντά στη θεά Καλυψώ, η οποία τον ερωτεύτηκε και δεν τον άφηνε να φύγει απ' το νησί της.

Στην πέμπτη ραψωδία ο Οδυσσέας λέει στην Καλυψώ: «το είδα και καλά το ξέρω, η Πηνελόπη αντίκρυ σου, όσο κι αν δεν της λείπει η φρόνηση, σου υπολείπεται και στη μορφή και στο παράστημα... Κι όμως, εν γνώσει μου το θέλω και το επιθυμώ, απ' το πρωί ώς το βράδυ, σπίτι μου να γυρίσω, να δω κι εγώ τη μέρα της επιστροφής». Και συνεχίζει ο Όμηρος: καθώς μιλούσε, «άρχισε να δύει ο ήλιος, έπεσε το σκοτάδι· προχώρησαν οι δυο τους στο κοίλο βάθος της σπηλιάς, κοιμήθηκαν μαζί, και χάρηκαν μαζί φιλί κι αγκάλη»

Or:

The Greek word for “return” is nostos. Algos means “suffering.” So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.To express that fundamental notion most Europeans can utilize a word derived from the Greek (nostalgia, nostalgie) as well as other words with roots in their national languages: añoranza, say the Spaniards; saudade, say the Portuguese. In each language these words have a different semantic nuance. Often they mean only the sadness caused by the impossibility of returning to one’s country: a longing for country, for home. What in English is called “homesickness.” Or in German: Heimweh. In Dutch: heimwee.

But this reduces that great notion to just its spatial element. One of the oldest European languages, Icelandic (like English) makes a distinction between two terms: söknuour: nostalgia in its general sense; and heimprá: longing for the homeland. Czechs have the Greek-derived nostalgie as well as their own noun, stesk, and their own verb; the most moving, Czech expression of love: styska se mi po tobe (“I yearn for you,” “I’m nostalgic for you”; “I cannot bear the pain of your absence”). In Spanish añoranza comes from the verb añorar (to feel nostalgia), which comes from the Catalan enyorar, itself derived from the Latin word ignorare (to be unaware of, not know, not experience; to lack or miss), In that etymological light nostalgia seems something like the pain of ignorance, of not knowing. You are far away, and I don’t know what has become of you. My country is far away, and I don’t know what is happening there.

Certain languages have problems with nostalgia: the French can only express it by the noun from the Greek root, and have no verb for it; they can say Je m’ennuie de toi (I miss you), but the word s’ennuyer is weak, cold — anyhow too light for so grave a feeling. The Germans rarely use the Greek-derived term Nostalgie, and tend to say Sehnsucht in speaking of the desire for an absent thing. But Sehnsucht can refer both to something that has existed and to something that has never existed (a new adventure), and therefore it does not necessarily imply the nostos idea; to include in Sehnsucht the obsession with returning would require adding a complementary phrase: Sehnsucht nach der Vergangenheit, nach der verlorenen Kindheit, nach der ersten Liebe (longing for the past, for lost childhood, for a first love).

The dawn of ancient Greek culture brought the birth of the Odyssey, the founding epic of nostalgia. Let us emphasize: Odysseus, the greatest adventurer of all time, is also the greatest nostalgic. He went off (not very happily) to the Trojan War and stayed for ten years. Then he tried to return to his native Ithaca, but the gods' intrigues prolonged his journey, first by three years jammed with the most uncanny happenings, then by seven more years that he spent as hostage and lover with Calypso, who in her passion for him would not let him leave her island.

In Book Five of the Odyssey, Odysseus tells Calypso: "As wise as she is, I know that Penelope cannot compare to you in stature or in beauty ... And yet the only wish I wish each day is to be back there, to see in my own house the day of my return!" And Homer goes on: "As Odysseus spoke, the sun sank; the dusk came: and beneath the vault deep within the cavern, they withdrew to lie and love in each other's arms."

Friday, September 16, 2005

Am bored: Greek books?

Wondering how many books I've read in Greek.

I arrived in Greece in August 1998 and couldn't read newspaper headlines. Because I've always been a book addict I'd hang around the second-hand stores in Thisseio and browse and buy books I'd not read very soon. One of the first Greek books that I bought on Greek soil was Lily Zografou's novel Profession: Whore. [ΛΙΛΗ ΖΩΓΡΑΦΟΥ ΕΠΑΓΓΕΛΜΑ: ΠΟΡΝΗ] It's actually signed by the author. But it's also signed by, I assume, it's very first reader: Glyfada (Athens neighbourhood), 4 June, 1982. I can't tell the name of that first reader.

Anyway: there on the first page is the author's "Warning" [ΠΡΟΕΙΔΟΠΟΙΗΣΗ].

Δεν πουλώ ύφος, στυλ, λογοτεχνία. Δεν γράφω διηγήματα. Καταθέτω γεγονότα και συμπτώματα της εποχής που ζω. Όλα όσα γράφω συνέβησαν. Σε μένα ή σε άλλους.

Which means:

I don't sell attitude, style, literature. I don't write stories. I record the events and symptoms of the time. Everything that I write, has happened. To me or to others.

I never read past that. I will.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Publishers gather under the Acropolis

English language Kathimerini reports:

Mild September evenings are perfect for a visit to the annual outdoor book fair on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, beneath the Acropolis.

Hundreds of publishers are participating in the fair, which is organized by the Publishers’ League (SEKB). The theme is “Greek Books in the World” and there will be a special exhibit of a panorama of Greek books in translation and bilingual editions, ranging from literature and art books to cookbooks and travel guides.

The Greek branch of UNICEF is holding a discussion on “Books: A Means of Combating Poverty” at the Acropolis Study Center (2-4 Makriyianni St). Speakers are Lambros Kanellopoulos, president of UNICEF’s Greek branch; Pantelis Kapsis, editor of Ta Nea; Seraphim Fyntanidis, editor of Eleftherotypia; Professor Constantinos Tsoukalas and Nikolaos Nkas, general secretary of SEKB.

The National Book Center (EKEBI) will have a stand at the fair, providing information about Greek books and their promotion abroad.

The fair opens tomorrow and runs till October 2. The official opening by Greek President Karolos Papoulias is on September 19 at 7 p.m.

Open Monday-Thursday 6-10.30 p.m.; Friday- Saturday 6-11 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 6-10.30 p.m.