:: Anthology of Contemporary Greek Poetry ::

:: Anthology of Contemporary Greek Poetry ::

Trilingual :: Greek :: Macedonian :: English ::

part of the book series :: SlovoKult :: Slovoteka

:: published by ::

Art Equilibrium (MK) & SlovoKult :: Literatur/a (DE) :: 2020

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of R.N. Macedonia

Available at Staalplaat – where will be the program as a part of the Biennial of contemporary arts ::

:: SlovoKult :: literARTour :: 2020 ::

We have not too many copies of the book here, but we have few copies of the print with the cover picture :: by Dijana Tomik Radevska and a poem by Vasileia Oikonomou ::

Edited by Elizabeta Lindner (MK/DE) and Thanos Gogos (GR)

Foreword

This collection of contemporary Greek poetry testifies that art does not know the political categories for division of people: borders, states, nationality, history… art transcends all of them and strives for the future, which we are already shaping.

I consider internationality and diversity to be extremely important in every field and in every sense – especially in artistic exchange, where everyone is what they are: talented contemporary authors with a personal expression, which is universal and yet retains their cultural and linguistic peculiarity, which can affect the works, but not necessarily; it is left to individual creative freedom.

In 2018 for the first edition of the festival SlovoKult :: literARTour  I was looking for participants from Greece, at least for Berlin, so through a very dear colleague – translator from German to Greek, Alexandros Kypriotis, I had the opportunity to get in touch with the poet Vasileia Oikonomou. She accepted my invitation, and since she was living in Berlin at the time, could easily be part of the festival. It fills that void where politics are unable to rule in a naturally unencumbered community, to honestly and cordially recognize and acknowledge the other, regardless of some pretentious and clumsy political decisions. Our collaboration continued, enriched with friendship and in fact at a distance between Berlin-Athens-Larissa, where Vasileia was the co-editor of a magazine, and with great progress, because we also managed to collaborate with Thanos Gogos, editor-in-chief and publisher of Thraka, a magazine and publishing house, and artistic director of the Thessalian Poetry Festival in Larissa. That collaboration further evolved with concrete plans, and this anthology of contemporary Greek poetry is one of them. It has already been accomplished, and several more will follow (Anthology of contemporary Macedonian poetry in Greek, 2021, etc.).

The selection of authors and poems is excellent, as are the English translations submitted by most authors. The Macedonian translation is equally remarkable, and was done by Tomislav Osmanli who in 2018 translated several poems by Oikonomou for the aforementioned festival. We had seriously good material from texts, and that motivated me to make this collection not only in Macedonian, but trilingual, so that it can be presented in many countries and thus not only achieve one of the main goals of the projects that I lead, but also bring additional promotion of the Macedonian language and the wonderful cooperation and exchange between countries with a political problem. We will show: art knows no obstacles on the way to the future, because it is based on primordial truth, love and diversity, and thus it constantly moves forwards and is an unstoppable process of change – although small in relation to the whole world, always significant.

Thanks to Art Equilibrium, the wonderful collaborators and artists and the happy circumstances that allowed us to reach the synergistic connection, and of course the support we received, we managed to bring to life the collection of selected contemporary Greek poetry. That is why I am very glad that you are able to have in your hand this special book, whose poetic content is enriched with selected quality works of art by Diana Tomik Radevska, with which we partially follow the concept of SlovoKult – so at the end of this address I wish you wonderful moments that will take you and bring you closer to yourself, the world, to outer space … and the neighbor.

Elizabeta Lindner

EXCERPT :: Thanos Gogos :: from his poetry collection :: Dakar ::

English by Lena Kallergi