Literature

Maria Laina, Jamaica Inn

Our life has changed somehow
we don’t live in the city anymore
but on the road to the sea.
At nights we are concerned
with the routes of the moon
the flappings on the hills
and the horses descending into the water pit.

If you at last decide to come
you will be keeping me company at nights
now that autumn is coming
and the hinges creak in the dark.
You will learn to pray
in strength and desperation
and that strange feeling
will blend with the hard lines of nature.



You’d better bring a few clothes and books
[…]
and don’t forget the right shoes
because the swamp is behind the house
and the winter is very rainy.

I’ m leaving you now; take care
you know how much I love you.
I am thinking of you sitting on that sofa by the window
thinking about time and the bodies as they grow old.
All these are figments of the imagination
we only have a loud and clear eternity
which you never grow weary of it, though makes your eyes
hurt at times.

I’d better close the window now
the wind is blowing again.












Maria Laina, biography

Maria Laina (born 1947) studied law at the University of Athens, but she did not practice it. Instead she has worked as a translator, critic, scriptwriter, professor of Greek in American colleges, copy editor and radio producer. She belongs to a literary team of Greek authors who began publishing their work during the 1970’s. Her collection Ρόδινος Φόβος (Rhodinos Phobos = Rosy Fear) won the State Prize for Poetry in 1993. For the translation into German she was awarded the Prize of the City of Munich. In 1996 she was awarded the Cavafy prize and in 1998 the Maria Callas prize of the 3rd program of the Greek Radio Organization.

Maria Laina quotes

“In Greece we admire poets, because virtually we don’t take them into account”.

“You cannot write poetry without silence.”

“In reality, poetry is a matter of estimation, rhythm and endless hours of work.”

“Poetry is just words, neither ideas nor sentiment.”

“Past is a foreign land / things are different there. Reading not life has brought me to poetry.”

“I would never commit suicide, mainly because I am terribly curious about everything.”

“I use love as an antidote to death, only then can I forget it… It’s not about death, it’s about non-existence, actually. The only reality is that time will sweep us all.”

“If we can’t be happy, let’s be beautiful at least.”

The phantom of Maria Laina, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin.

Kostas Stergiopoulos, biography

Kostas Stergiopoulos (1926-2016) studied literature at the University of Athens. Afterwards, he worked as a teacher in secondary education and in a private Film and Theatre School. Between 1966-1972 he held the position of lecturer at the University of Athens and the position of assistant at the Library of Byzantine and Modern Greek Literature, when he was dismissed by the dictatorship. In 1974 he took the post of professor of Modern Greek Literature at the University of Ioannina which he held until 1984, when he resigned. His collection Ο Ήλιος του Μεσονυκτίου (Ho Helios tou Mesonyktiou = The Midnight Sun) won the State Prize for Poetry in 1992. In 2004 he won the Grand Prize for Literature. Apart from poetry he has published critical essays. His work has been translated in many languages. In 1994 the publishing house Romiossini in Cologne issued a selection of his work entitled Here, where Light battles against Gravity.