Patreida
In the poetic composition ‘PatrEida’, Yannis Efthymiadis attempts to chronicle the deconstruction of a homeland, reconstructing it so that its poetic essence may form the substance of a new world. For a homeland that (self-)plagiarises, poetry becomes a breath of (dis)liberation.
In my country, the universes rise like cranes, scattered
here and there
You never manage to see them gathered together, for the universes
are forces of opposite names, they know only centrifugal frenzy
If anyone ever says they live in all the universes, they are cast out
by them, into the empty ether, or they are saying that they too have become
a universe, in the desolation of the cold
As a child, I thought I would live in such a universe. Then in another,
in another…
But as I grew up, I learnt to be on my guard whenever a universe threatens
to rule my life, to narrate my love in my absence,
to promise things I never even had time to imagine
And, universes, do not refuse to bow, when that hour comes,
that mighty hour, when my world will shine, a triple sun, to wipe you
from sight.
- Pages: 68
- ISBN: 978-960-572-229-6
- Publication: 2018
- Date of publication: 25/04/2018
- Dimensions: 17 x 24 εκ.
- Categories: Literature, Books, Poetry
"...Introspective poetry, sufficiently political, redefines the poet’s relationship with the concept of homeland, which is now approached on the basis of a re-engagement with humanity as both the self and a collective subject."
– Poly Kremnioti, Avgi_I saw you sad and wounded, my homeland, even though they said they were miracles…_ Beginning the tour of Yannis Efthymiadis’s poetic landscapes with these two characteristic verses, which he sets forth as a motto in the first section with the unusual title: ‘Patrida’, which is also the title of his collection, I automatically form an affectionate bond, a relationship of reciprocity with his poetry; at the same time, it takes me to folk song with its gentle, the somewhat heroic rhythm elsewhere, the authenticity, the tenderness and the gallantry, the spontaneity and the clarity of vision of the Homeland from the perspective of a Sicilian, but also through the complex, multi-layered poetic spectrum of Elytis.
– Eleni Choreanthi, Diastixo.grYiannis Efthymiadis
Yannis Efthymiadis was born in 1969 in Piraeus. He studied classical literature and undertook postgraduate studies in ancient Greek drama. He has published five collections of poetry (Stigma, privately published 2004, Kainos Diaretis, Nefeli 2007, Letters to the Prince, Mikri Arktos 2010, 27 or The Man Who Falls, Mikri Arktos 2012, On Your Body, Little Bear 2014) and a literary essay (12 Conversations with Odysseas Elytis’s Monogram, Kalligraphos 2014). He has translated English and American poets. His poems have been included in Greek and international anthologies and have been translated into English, French and German, whilst the cycle of poems The Crystal of the World (Metronomos 2016) has been set to music and recorded. He works as a teacher, has published literature textbooks for secondary education, and contributes to literary publications, both print and online, as well as magazines.
