Anthology 12 + 1 poems by Kiki Dimoula (selection by Lluïsa Merino Montes).
Αγγελίες | Ads |
Διατίθεται ἀπόγνωσις εἰς ἀρίστην κατάστασιν, καὶ εὐρύχωρον ἀδιέξοδον. Σὲ τιμὲς εὐκαιρίας.
Ἀνεκμετάλλευτον καὶ εὔκαρπον ἔδαφος πωλεῖται ἐλλείψει τύχης καὶ διαθέσεως.
Καὶ χρόνος ἀμεταχείριστος ἐντελῶς.
Πληροφορίαι: Ἀδιέξοδον. Ὥρα: Πᾶσα. (Ερήμην, 1958) |
Despair is available in excellent condition, and a spacious dead-end. Bargain prices.
Unexploited and fertile soil for sale due to lack of luck and mood.
And a totally unused time.
For further information: Deadlock Time: Any. (In absentia, 1958) |
Ο πληθυντικός αριθμός | The plural |
Ὁ ἔρωτας, ὄνομα οὐσιαστικόν, πολὺ οὐσιαστικόν, ἑνικοῦ ἀριθμοῦ, γένους οὔτε θηλυκοῦ, οὔτε ἀρσενικοῦ, γένους ἀνυπεράσπιστου. Πληθυντικὸς ἀριθμὸς οἱ ἀνυπεράσπιστοι ἔρωτες. Ὁ φόβος, ὄνομα οὐσιαστικὸν στὴν ἀρχὴ ἑνικὸς ἀριθμὸς καὶ μετὰ πληθυντικὸς οἱ φόβοι. Οἱ φόβοι γιὰ ὅλα ἀπὸ δῶ καὶ πέρα. Ἡ μνήμη, κύριο ὄνομα τῶν θλίψεων, ἑνικοῦ ἀριθμοῦ μόνον ἑνικοῦ ἀριθμοῦ καὶ ἄκλιτη. Ἡ μνήμη, ἡ μνήμη, ἡ μνήμη. Ἡ νύχτα, ὄνομα οὐσιαστικόν, γένους θηλυκοῦ, ἑνικὸς ἀριθμός. Πληθυντικὸς ἀριθμὸς οἱ νύχτες. Οἱ νύχτες ἀπὸ δῶ καὶ πέρα. (Το λίγο του κόσμου, 1971) |
Love: noun, substantive, extremely substantive, singular in number, gender not feminine, not masculine, gender defenceless. Plural the number of defenceless loves. Fear: substantive, singular to start with plural afterward: fears. Fears of everything from now on. Memory: noun, proper name for sorrows, singular in number, singular only, and indeclinable. Memory, memory, memory. Night: substantive, gender feminine, number singular. Plural in number: the nights. The nights from now on.
(The Little of the World, 1971) |
Translations: Ads: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/angeli%CC%81es-ads.html
The plural: https://books.google.es/books?id=zJKzAwAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
His poetry - the most praised and appreciated in contemporary Greek literature - is paradoxical, intricate, yet enormously popular. It mixes the concrete and the abstract, the literal and the metaphorical, the physical and the metaphysical. Sober, profound, unsentimental poetry that effortlessly transforms the everyday into the metaphysical and draws on such powerful themes as time and fate and has earned the respect of readers.
In addition to time and fate, other themes that dominate his poems are: absence, hurt, loss and loneliness. Characteristic of his poetry are the personification of abstract concepts, the unusual use of common words and a mocking and bitter attitude at the same time. Thanks to this use of varied themes and the original way of twisting grammar, he accentuates the power of words through astonishment and surprise. This dimension of wonder and surprise has become a constitutive emotional factor in contemporary Greek poetry and Kiki is a master, a magician of language and its expressive power.
She is not a very prolific author: 14 collections of poems, not very extensive, in little more than 65 years of literary activity. She also has a predilection for short poems. Her works include: Ποιήματα [Poems] 1952; Έρεβος [Erebus (Darkness)] 1956; Ερήμην [In absentia] 1958; Επί τα ίχνη [On the trail] 1963; Το λίγο του κόσμου [The Little of the World] 1971; Το τελευταίο σώμα μου [My last body] 1981; Χαίρε Ποτέ [Farewell Never] 1988; Η εφηβεία της λήθης [Lethe's adolescence] 1994; Ενός λεπτού μαζί [One Minute's Together] 1998; Ποιήματα (Συγκεντρωτκή έκδοση) [Poems, Complete edition], 1998; Ήχος Απομακρύνσεων [Departure's Sound] 2001; Χλόη θερμοκηπίου [Glass-house lawn] 2005; Μεταφερθήκαμε παραπλεύρως [We moved next door] 2007; Τα εύρετρα [Findings] 2010; ]; Δημόσιος καιρός [Public time] 2014; Άνω τελεία [Semicolon] 2016. Prose works: Ο Φιλοπαίγμων μύθος [A mocking myth] 2004 [Admission speech to the Academy of Athens]; Εκτός σχεδίου [Out of programme]; Συνάντηση Γιάννης Ψυχοπαίδης, Κική Δημουλά [Meeting: Yannis Psicopedis - Kikí Dimulá] 2007 [Anthology with seventy-three paintings by John Psychopedis].