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In the underground station at the University, a woman is sitting in front of a red wall that reads, "Return often and take me, beloved sensation." A young couple is commenting on the inscription, seeking reference to the poem added with a fine word below, "Return". The general public who travel around Athens and use the underground is not familiar with the work of the great Alexandrian poet. The Onassis Cultural Centre has undertaken to present to the residents and visitors of Athens "Cavafy’s Archive", which the Onassis Cultural Centre acquired a year ago. So, on 14 October, the walls of the underground stations at Kerameikos, Syntagma square and the University, the stops of three electric trains, a tram and 31 buses, were filled with lines of nine Constantine Cavafy’s poems, poems in the form of a poetic motto and close to the "pop" aesthetics.

The line that has become the bone of contention

The Onassis Cultural Centre, however, has disregarded the social media which have opposed the project, the reason for this being an article by journalist Natalie Hadzhiandoniou in Eleftherotipia newspaper.

The already popular verse "Haste is a dangerous thing", taken from the poem "In a Large Greek Colony, 200 BC", put in huge letters on a bus and in the background of the parliament, has become the apple of discord. Supporters of conspiracy theories as well as members of the radical left SYRIZA party such as Rena Dourou and Dimitris Papadimoulis have started talking, on Twitter, about "montage" and "propaganda". Those who are more sober have confined themselves to indicating the inappropriateness of the line, as the word which is closer to "violence" in meaning today is used in Cavafy 's poem in its obsolete meaning, namely "hurry, haste". The Onassis Cultural Centre has immediately responded, stating in a message, a day after the fuss, that it has no "partisan purposes" nor will it have any. The line has been completed with "Let's not be too hasty: haste is a dangerous thing” and is now quietly moving around the streets of Athens.

Poems’ traps

"Cavafy is a poet whose work is full of traps, as he widely uses irony. The above line hides a double trap," states Nassos Vagenas, Professor of Theory and Criticism of Literature at the University of Athens. "Not only has the Onassis Cultural Centre fallen into the trap, but also those who are protesting against the selection of the controversial line. I mean SYRIZA, which deems that "haste (violence) is a dangerous thing", is directed against the party, thus confirming the theory of the two extremes with its reaction. I think that people who are familiar with Cavafy’s works should be assigned to make a precise selection of his poems in order to avoid their misinterpretation as well as problems that have nothing to do with the essence of poetry. Poetic word is frugal and it should be used in the same way. Vagenas notes that the putting of lines on the mass transport means is not an invention of the Onassis Cultural Centre. While the National Book Centre was functioning (until 2011), poems by poets were put in public places on the occasion of the World Poetry Day or in connection with an anniversary and Vagenas himself had selected poems by various poets.

"Pop" approach

It is because "pop" strikes and provokes violent comments, some of them positive and some of them negative, regarding the aesthetics of the campaign, which is "fresh" and "modern" on the one hand and "cartoonist" and "inartistic due to the huge letters" on the other. Yiannis Haralambopoulos, who is a co-founder of Beetroot Design Group and in charge of the planning of the campaign, is the person who can comment on the issue. "The definition of ‘pop’ is relative. I would say that the project is more modern and less expected. This is clear from the instructions we had received from the Cultural Centre. The aim was to bring Cavafy closer to the general public. It was an outward move. For many years, the visual materials related to poetry had been serious and sterile, engraved on beige paper. Anyway, Cavafy was a forerunner of modern poetry therefore we thought this would have been a suitable approach, since it would have been designed for the pleasure of the general public. Cavafy is modern and contemporary. Why should we keep him in naphthalene?".

Multiple interpretations

However, let us return to the poetry itself which, according to some, "has become an orphan" since some fragmentary lines have started travelling around the city, although no one denies that the verse "I was becoming a stranger, a total stranger" has provoked a huge response regardless of the fact that it has been separated from his poem "Myris: Alexandria, A.D. 340". Dimitris Papanikolaou, a lecturer in Modern Greek Language and Culture at Oxford University and a scientific advisor to the Onassis Cultural Centre would say (not, however, in connection with the particular campaign), "The separation of verses from the context can be very creative and Cavafy himself knew it. On the one hand, he provokes the readers to make multiple interpretations, sometimes verging on irony and he provokes them to seek the original text and the poetic idea with a fresh look on the other. It is very easy to discover Cavafy with his Ithaca, with his Thermopylae, it is very easy to reprint his classical works but you do not provoke discussion in this way; you are just praising yourself, provoking yawns and creating passive readers. The question is how to drive people to read the passages again, to think them over again and even to consider their specific use. I find some of the selected excerpts inappropriate too but I totally agree with the general philosophy of the campaign. Moreover, I enjoy all the fuss on the web. A real tide of disputes, creativity, irony and parody, has begun to rise from all sides."

The campaign has just begun

Aphroditi Panagiotakou, deputy director and communications manager of the Onassis Cultural Centre states, "You can make safe choices and you will be at ease. We could do without a scandal, but if we assess things, the fact that today we have that discussion and those disputes about poetry is healthy, since a political motive is not being sought behind our actions. The same happens during performances. While some are applauding, others are leaving the room. Risk for us is a position, not for the sake of the challenge but for the sake of avoidance of painless solutions. In addition, we are talking about a campaign that has just begun. This campaign is the first sign indicating that we want Cavafy to move around the streets of our city, but also to present him to the people who have not known him or who have found it difficult to reach him. For example, we have published for the first time his works in Braille, for the visually impaired."

"Hip-hop" approach

We are anticipating the continuation of the campaign (and possibly, the subsequent reactions) since the activities of the Cultural Centre for the period 2013 - 2014 will be announced on 29 October. They include the already announced education programmes in secondary schools (for now, in the neighbourhoods of Ambelokipi, Koukaki, Imitos, Kipseli and Nikea) within which the pupils will study Cavafy through hip-hop and comics. "Someone might say, ‘What are you doing?’ Is it possible to recreate a poem through hip-hop or comics? For us, this approach is not irrelevant as it shows absolute respect for the poet who had never followed the beaten track," says Aphroditi Panagiotakou. The future events involve cooperation with artists such as George Koumendakis, Konstantinos Vita, Yiannis Angelakas, Μechanimal, who will create songs using just one word from a poem by Cavafy. "You do not understand a lot when you hear just one word but if a song contains the word "return" and the music influences other levels of consciousness then it will transfer to the listener the emotions of Cavafy’s poems", continues Aphroditi Panagiotakou. In any case, whatever your opinion on the subject, you can express it during the discussion that will be held at the Onassis Cultural Centre in November under the title "What happens when Cavafy gets into mass transport means". We should have a dialogue at least, "though in spite of everything we do go forward."