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Zdravka Mihaylova
Exclusively for GRReporter

In Greece March is the month of poetry. 2011 marks 15 years of the physical absence only of Greek Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseas Elytis. Elytis belongs to the lineage of great poets, the profound meaning of whose oeuvre could only be deciphered through the decoding of language and vocabulary. In his collection of essays Open Cards the poet emphasizes his belief that “each language liberates concrete contents”. Elytis transforms the hyperrealism of poetry in a mode of life, Surrealism accustoms the poet to surpass time and space. Greece of the marine element and of mountain solidity co-exists in peaceful syncretism with the landscapes of memory. Surrealism with its irrational force helps the poet to introduce a revolution in the concept of the so-called “Greek truth”. “For me the space of the Aegean is not only part of nature but a kind of “divine fingerprint”, Elytis writes. Without being a chauvinist, for him Greece symbolizes “certain values which could enrich universal spirits wherever they are”. He is one of the few poets who developed a complete theoretical framework for their own work, while simultaneously it is a way of interpreting the universe and man too. His essays are the theoretical key for understanding his poetry, his political and ideological views. In order to provide better comprehension of his writing, the poet unfolds this theory in his essay about Picasso titled “Theory of Analogies” (Open Cards). In one of his interviews titled Analogies of Light Elytis writes: “I and my generation – Seferis included – we tried to discover the true face of Greece. This was necessary because until then the “true” face of Greece projected was the one that Europeans figured about the image of Greece. For achieving our aim we had to overcome the tradition of rationalism burdening the West. This could explain the great impact of Surrealism when it appeared on the literary scene in our country”. As the poet himself underlines, he was never a particular adherent of Surrealism, but only finds in it certain congruent elements and adapts them to Greek light. As a “visual affirmation” of his poetry, Elytis’ collages seem to emerge from the depth of his verse.

On the occasion of the month of poetry dedicated to Odysseas Elytis, Zdravka Mihaylova talks about his work with his companion and muse, the poet Ioulita Iliopoulou.

INTERVIEW WITH IOULITA ILΙOPOULOU

QUESTION: Odysseas Elytis was one of the few poets with a comprehensive world-view that allows a better grasp of his poetry and ideology as an artist. In his essay on Picasso entitled Open Cards the poet speaks of his "theory of analogies." The line drawn by an artist or the word written by a poet are not closed in themselves, they have their analogies in the world of moral values. For example, the mountains have one or another line and this should somehow have an impact on the human spirit, it should have its analogies. As a perfect example of such an analogy Elytis quotes the observation of Le Corbusier, who says that the contour of the Attic mountains is repeated in the pediment of the Parthenon. The Greek landscape has its metaphorical use by the poet, it glorifies freedom, transparency of emotions (transparency is a fundamental concept in his poetry), and condemns war (Heroic and Mournful Song for the Lost Second Lieutenant in the Albanian Campaign), any hypocrisy and subjugation of the spirit. How the lines of the Greek landscape are re-rendered as moral values ​​in his poetry?

ILIOPOULOU: It seems to me that in your extended question you gave the answer about the theory Elytis developed in Ivar Ivask’s interview. In it, he muses on the correlation between aesthetic and moral values. Elytis often talks about the spelling of the landscape, the impact that nature has on the mental and spiritual world, on the aesthetic values ​​of space at this point in the Mediterranean. The reader often distinguishes in his texts the projection of a clear line that runs from the landscape, goes through the language and continues to reach transcendental meditation. This is a continuous metaphor from the world of tangible things to the universe of transcendent concepts, which makes the unknown close and comprehensible, revealing too unknown aspects of familiar things. We would simply say that Elytis is persistently seeking to lift the habitual veil over the reality surrounding us and to reveal some of the hidden perfection - aesthetic and moral – “which lies somewhere in completion”.

QUESTION: Elytis’ attitude to light, to the infinite azure of the Aegean Sea and its island archipelago is almost idolatrous. His poetry contains elements of mythology and ancient Greek tradition. He was an epic poet, sensual, respectful of religion, metaphysical, surrealist, who does not fit within prescribed categories because his poetry springs from all aspects of life. His early poems are classified by the famous Greek writer Yorgos Theotokas as "a mystical dawn over the Aegean." Dominant elements in his first books of poetry Orientations (1940) and The First Sun (1943) are the Aegean Sea with its salty aura, colours and sunlight. He himself regarded his poetry as a source of pure defiance. How does it contribute to the turning point in Greek poetry in its search for a different image of Greece, which the so-called representatives of the Generation of the Thirties in Greek literature sought after?

ILIOPOULOU: First of all, Elytis sought for a new visage for poetry. He gives new meaning to the act of poetry itself. He takes the concept of poetry away from that of personal confession, from the description of life, from simple observation. He refers to archetypes, attempts to re-combine the elements of the world through language, giving a dynamic meaning to the poetic universe. And of course, by referring to a similar position for the transforming power of poetic thought through the universe of senses and awareness of the neglected opportunities of the country, Elytis highlights an image of Greece different from the worshipping of antiquity.
He experienced significant historical moments and manages to highlight not the topical but the enduring meaning of things. For him, Greece is a powerful aesthetic phenomenon, a dominant force, a language power, a moral value. Although subjected to blows from surrounding reality, poetry is bound to show its true value and the way towards the fulfillment of virtue.

QUESTION: The linguistic diversity and ability of Elytis to give words a new charge of meaning are the starting point for subsequent poetic generations. I read somewhere that his poetry was written with the use of about 8000 words, while that of Cavafy, for example, used 3500 words. How this capability for coining new words contributes to the different quality of his poems?

ILIOPOULOU: We would say somewhat aphoristically that poetry is written through the language, we would say that it is language itself. Elytis is well aware of this. It seems that he is not only amazingly enjoying this flexible tool the Greek language provided him, but is experimenting with inventive forms of the language, thus offering novel manifestations of life itself. He thinks, acts, and rejects by the originality of his compositions.

QUESTION: The programme of the celebrations marking the centenary of the poet’s birth was recently presented at the Megaro Mousikis (the Athens Concert Hall). The numerous events - the International Congress on "The 20^th century in the poetry of Elytis. Elytis's poetry in the 21^st century", the poetry readings on the occasion of World Poetry, traditionally celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox – 21 March, the activation of the web-pages www.odysseaselytis.gr and www.elytis.gr, the concert at the Irodion with music by Y. Kouropos based on the poem Monogram – includes an exhibition of the poet’s visual works, to be opened at the Theoharakis Foundation. Which of his works will we see there?

ILIOPOULOU: It's not about just an exhibit of visual works, but about presenting the universe of Odysseas Elytis. Our goal is to show the most important stages of his life and work - manuscripts, translations, fine works of other artists (Tsarouhis, Moralis), of foreign artists whose paths have crossed with the Elytis’ world and creativity. The exhibit will also present works by contemporary artists inspired by Elytis’ poetry.

QUESTION: Тhe poet’s ideology will be presented in colours, words, music, publications. In 1960, Elytis was awarded the State Prize for poetry for Worthy It Is (Άξιον εστί), and in 1961 began his collaboration with Mikis Theodorakis, who set some of his poems to music and initiated the widespread promotion of his verse as song lyrics. The fine works of Elytis complement his poems through colour and image. Would you agree that Elytis’ poetry by itself is a visual challenge to the readers?

ILIOPOULOU: The challenge of the visual arts you refer to does not come from his amateur form of pictorial expression but through the dimension of his poetic which creates images. What he writes has its own visual equivalent. Even the most intellectual mental scheme has its own line in the visible world. Let us not forget that Elytis stimulates our senses and naturally achieves his expression through the acoustic rhythmic equivalent of a verbal concept.

QUESTION: The poet begins his Nobel Prize speech in Stockholm in 1979 by saying: “Allow me to talk in the name of lucidity and transparency." One has the feeling that by the fulfillment of his last wish – a small church to be built overlooking the Aegean Sea – the spirit of the poet meets with eternal transparency –  that of the boundless blue of the sea. The church Παναγία Παντοχαρά, for the building of which you have significantly contributed, will be consecrated on the island of Sikinos this summer. Tell us more about this event.

ILIOPOULOU: This church is Elytis’ dedication to the Virgin in exchange for his life and work. His will was the church to be built on this island which he had never visited, because he was convinced that it has preserved its authenticity more than any other Greek island. I have made his will come true. I got up to its fulfillment. Construction works will finish this year and I hope the first liturgy will be celebrated there this summer or autumn.

QUESTION: Elytis’ deep involvement, which connects him with the visual arts and especially with the technique of collage, stemmed from his meeting in Paris artists like Chagall, Leger, Max Ernst. Thanks to his friendship with the French Surrealists, he felt the link poetry-painting more tangibly. Although he has been engaged in the visual arts, Worthy It Is (1959) becomes the foundation for his international reputation. He met his true teacher, the poet Paul Eluard, in 1946. Then followed a second trip to Paris in 1948, where he met Picasso and Matisse, and realized he could easily be a painter. In fine arts Elytis was influenced mostly by neo-Impressionism but also by Surrealism. He showed his works at the exhibition of Surrealists in Athens (1935), and had an individual exhibition in Stockholm (1979). Some of his books are illustrated with his collages (Open Cards) and water-coulors (Private Road). Did Elytis continue to look at himself as an artist when he was at the height of his fame as a poet?

ILIOPOULOU: This is the exhibition of the Surrealists hosted at the home of the poet Andreas Embirikos in 1935. Elytis did not expose his other works before 1979 and 1980 in Sweden and Athens. He is not an artist. He did not illustrate his books. He published some of them like Private Road and Garden of Illusions and presented in parallel some of his visual works. He loved painting very much, he had profound theoretical knowledge, but he had not studied painting and theory of colours. So, he was self-educated admirer of this art, not an artist. Once he wrote that had he not been born a Greek and had he not availed himself of this specific language tool, then he would have probably been a painter.

QUESTION: This year marks one hundred years from the birth of one of Elytis’s translators into Bulgarian – the poet Hellenist Stefan Gechev. A few years ago you visited Sofia for a discussion on "Elytis of Fine Arts" held in the hall for cultural events at the Greek embassy there, named after the Bulgarian poet. Do you share the view that not only the year of their birth connects them, but poetry as a way of life too, poetry as "the other face of pride" in the words of Elytis himself?

ILIOPOULOU: Yes, this connection is right. A common understanding of the meaning of life, of spiritual priorities connected them. They had a mutual appreciation of each other, the bond between the two of them was one of shared respect and trust.

On the occasion of World Poetry Day coinciding with the vernal equinox – 21 March - the National Book Centre of Greece and the Society of Writers organized a poetry evening dedicated to Odysseas Elytis.