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Dimitriou Soutsou 36

A special book capturing the conversation between two great Greek figures: the poet Nikos Karouzos (1926–1990) and the musician Yannis Zouganelis (1938–2006).
The conversation between the writer Nikos Karouzos and the musician and writer Yannis Zouganelis, which took place on 13 June 1986 at the former’s home and was recorded on three cassettes by the latter, covers approximately four hours of conversation. The two men chat ‘as friends’ – amongst other things – about music, poetry, the meaning of art, history, death and the artist’s place in the world… A spontaneous, authentic conversation that reveals the successive stages of their lives as well as the issues that preoccupied them throughout their artistic careers. In addition to the main text of the conversation, the publication includes an introduction, as well as notes by the editor Thanasis Galanakis, an illustrated appendix and indexes. Yannis Zouganelis (1938–2006) succeeded in associating his name with the largest brass instrument, the tuba, and through his performances in Greece and abroad, he was recognised as one of the leading tuba players of his time. Outside of music, he was involved in literature, publishing the magazine ‘Kritiki kai Keimena’ (Criticism and Texts) with Yannis Patilis, and he published autobiographical books. He had a special relationship with the poet Nikos Karouzos, and many of their conversations have been published in newspapers and magazines.
  • Author Yiannis Zouganelis, Nikos Karouzos
  • Introduction-Transcription Thanasis Galanakis & Amalia Tsoukala
  • General editing, research, commentary Thanasis Galanakis
  • Pages: 248
  • ISBN: 978-960-572-490-0
  • Publication: 2022
  • Date of publication: 04/07/2022
  • Dimensions: 13 x 20 εκ.
  • Categories: Books, Essays & Thought, Δοκίμιο

"Δεν ήταν μια τυπική συνέντευξη, αλλά μια συνομιλία που καταγράφηκε σε μαγνητόφωνο και τώρα έρχεται σε εμάς σαν μια συνομιλία μεταξύ δύο ανθρώπων βαθύτατα πνευματικών. Μιλώντας για τα απλά και τα μεγάλα. Για την ποίηση, τη μουσική, τη ζωή, τον θάνατο και τον έρωτα βρισκόμαστε μπροστά σε μια ανακάλυψη: το υπόγειο της Δημητρίου Σούτσου 36 ήταν ένα σημείο όπου ο ήλιος είχε άλλη λάμψη. Ολότελα ποιητική."

– Διονύσης Μαρίνος, Andro

"Η ζωντανή συζήτηση ανάμεσα στον ποιητή Νίκο Καρούζο και τον διεθνώς αναγνωρισμένο μουσικό Γιάννη Ζουγανέλη, που περιλαμβάνεται στο βιβλίο _Δημητρίου Σούτσου 36_, αναδεικνύει τις ουσιαστικές πτυχές της σκέψης και τις αρχές της μεταφυσικής του ποιητή. […] αμφότεροι συμφωνούν ότι η αισθητική είναι η νέα ηθική αλλά και ο βασικός άξονας που μετατρέπει το βιβλίο σε ζωντανό οδηγό της φιλοσοφίας του Νίκου Καρούζου, ένα ιδανικό εγχειρίδιο μιας δειπνοσοφιστικής προσέγγισης της ποίησής του…"

– Τίνα Μανδηλαρά, LIFO

"...Και έτσι άρχισε αυτή η «συνομιλία», σαν συζήτηση μεταξύ φίλων, όχι ομοτέχνων αλλά ομοούσιων καλλιτεχνών, όπου ο ένας αφηγείται τη ζωή και τις σκέψεις του στον άλλο. Μία συζήτηση μεταξύ ανθρώπων που συγκλίνουν, αλλά και αποκλίνουν σε πολλά..."

– Ανθούλα Δανιήλ, Diastixo.gr

"...Η συνομιλία, και όχι συνέντευξη, των δύο ανδρών είναι το τέλειο παράδειγμα διαλεκτικής. Η συζήτηση τους οδηγεί στην αλήθεια και κανείς δεν μπορεί να το αμφισβητήσει. Όχι, δεν είναι φωτεινοί παντογνώστες και φυσικά δεν έχουν το αλάθητο. Σε αυτόν τον διάλογο, όμως, μπαίνουν απελευθερωμένοι. Εδώ δεν υπάρχει καμία περιοριστική σύμβαση, ούτε καν του χρόνου! Δύο ώρες κουβέντα για «συνέντευξη» είναι πάρα πολύ, είναι η πρώτη ύλη για να δημιουργήσεις έναν νέο κόσμο, για να παρουσιάσεις με προσοχή τη σκέψη και την ψυχή του άλλου. Η βιασύνη των λεπτών, των ωρών, των δεικτών, μπαίνει στην άκρη και η είναι ανταλλαγή αδιαμεσολάβητων ερωτήσεων-απαντήσεων που δίνει τον ρυθμό και τον τόνο."

– Αλέξανδρος Στεργιόπουλος, Το περιοδικό

"Πρόκειται για ένα εξαιρετικά σημαντικό βιβλίο που συμπληρώνει μοναδικά τις γνώσεις μας για ζωή και τη δημιουργική διαδικασία του Νίκου Καρούζου, ο οποίος μέχρι τέλους έγραφε ποιήματα που αποτυπώνουν μοναδικά την υπαρξιακή μοναξιά, την απελπισία, την επιθανάτια αγωνία, την ματαιότητα. Και όλα αυτά, πάντα μέσα από απρόβλεπτους ποιητικούς στοχασμούς, από στίχους- χρησμούς, αλλά και από την αυτοκαταστροφική μανία ενός δημιουργού που ποτέ του δεν έπαψε να ερωτοτροπεί με την εκμηδένιση…"

– Γιώργος Βαΐλάκης, Popaganda

Nikos Karouzos

Nikos Karouzos (1926–1990), son of Dimitris and Konstantina, née Pitsaki, was born in Nafplio. His father was a teacher who had joined the National Liberation Front; he was persecuted during the civil war and exiled following the Varkiza Agreement. His mother was the daughter of a priest and a teacher. During his secondary school years, Karouzos was active in the EPO and was exiled to Ikaria (1947) and Makronissos (1951), from where he finally left in 1953 following a nervous breakdown. He married twice: in 1955 to Maria Daraki, with whom he lived for just a few months, and in 1963 to Mary Meimarakis, from whom he divorced in 1980. From 1981 until the end of his life, he was accompanied by Eva Bey.

He studied law and political science in Athens, but did not complete his studies, as he had already turned to poetry by 1941. In 1949, he made his first official appearance in the literary world with the publication of his poem “Simon of Cyrene” in the magazine “Our Age”. His first collection of poetry, entitled “The Return of Christ”, was published in 1954. He became better known in literary circles in the 1960s with the collections “The Deer of the Stars”, “The Sleeping Bag” and “Laments”. Many more collections and anthologies of his poems followed, culminating in his final poetic work, "Suspension", written on 29 August 1990 at the Ygeia Hospital, where the poet had been hospitalised for the last two years of his life, suffering from cancer.

He contributed to magazines such as "Nea Estia", "Athinaika Grammata", "Efthini", "Spira", "Tomes" and "I Leksi". He was honoured with the Second State Prize for Poetry (1963), the Group of Twelve Prize (1963), the First National Poetry Prize, jointly with Takis Varvitsiotis and Milto Sachouris (1972), and the First State Poetry Prize (1988).

Oedipus the Tormented

Oedipus the Tormented

Nikos Karouzos

This new volume of poetry by Nikos Karouzos includes: a) the poems from his first collections (1953–1956), b) poems published by him in magazines and newspapers from 1949 onwards, which he had not included in his poetry collections, and c) unpublished poems from his own archive, as well as from the archives of people close to him. Included are poems dedicated or gifted, which were either published posthumously by their owners or are seeing the light of day for the first time in this volume. This volume, compiled from the poems discovered to date—as research continues— spans the entire period of Karouzos’s poetic output and can be read in relation to the collected edition (of the two volumes of poems already published by Ikaros) both synchronically and diachronically. The first section, entitled ‘Early Poetry Collections’, is a reprint of the poetry collections The Return of Christ (1953), New Attempts (1954), Sign (1955), Twenty Poems (1955), Dialogues (1956). The poet had rejected a large proportion of the poems contained therein. Their inclusion in the new volume, however, was deemed necessary, on the one hand because they have been out of print for many years and are hard to come by, and secondly because these early collections of poetry highlight key poetic elements which, in their development and poetic maturation, reveal Karouzos’s poetic universe of values. The poems in the second section, published by the poet himself in literary journals, are presented in chronological order according to their publication date, whilst also giving us an insight into his publishing collaborations over time. In this section, we also find poems written for Schönberg, Giacometti, Mayakovsky, Sikelianos, Vivaldi, as well as poems incorporating verses by other poets (Karyotakis) or used as mottos (Solomos), and a poem as a variation on the surrealist game ‘cadavre exquis’. The third section presents those poems published by third parties after Karouzos’s death, and these are also arranged in chronological order according to their publication date. Those originating from the poet’s archive are grouped together and presented at the beginning of this section. The fourth section includes the unpublished poems that have been found. All the dedications in the poems are handwritten. It is worth noting, regarding the subject of dedications, that the poet himself has included poems that were already dedicated in his poetry collections, whether he made the dedication public or not. The Appendix to this volume provides the necessary details regarding the poems, such as the place and date of their first publication or, in the case of a reissue edited by the poet himself, the relevant details, as well as any different versions, with the variations highlighted. Where deemed necessary, details of a comparative study of the poetic texts are also provided, highlighting Karouzian poetry as a process in which the present moment of poetic writing encompasses its past. The title of this volume was chosen by Evgenios Aranitsis, based on the poem of the same name.

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Dimitriou Soutsou 36

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