Bøger af Nanos Valaoritis

Full of wit and wonder, these prose poems, meditations, and narratives open onto rare and unexpected vistas of history and myth, language, and the art of writing.". . .one of the most distinguished and enigmatic of modern Greek poets, full of Platonic wisdom. His originality of temperament is a most singluar thing. . . .[his] new book is splendid." -Lawrence Durrell"The purpose of the book is twofold: first, to revise certain aspects of nationalist modernism, and secondly, to radicalize Greek modernism by undermining continuity and tradition. . . . Valaoritis's revision primarily concerns the continuity and validity of tradition as expressed in the "myth of Greekness."" -Panayiotis Bosnakis, Journal of Modern Greek StudiesNanos Valaoritis was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1921, of Greek parents. He has lived in Athens, Paris, and the United States. One of Greece's most distinguished contemporary writers, he is the author of novels, plays, and poetry, and was twice awarded the Greek national poetry prize.

Black & White Edition. This is the first English translation of Marie Wilson & Nanos Valaoritis' "Terre de diamant", which first appeared in French in 1958. Marie Wilson, an American surrealist, was an active participant in the Paris surrealist group in the 1950s. This book, the only book Marie herself has published, is a supreme document of poetic evidence, infused by her collaboration with the Greek poet Nanos Valaoritis. Marie was inspired to create a series of sixteen lithographs, and Nanos prepared the sixteen parallel texts that accompany them. Marie and Nanos subsequently married in 1960. They live today in Athens, Greece.

Grækenland har altid haft store lyrikere. Blandt nobelpristagerne er Elytis og Seferis, som begge skriver i det blændende sollys. Nanos Valaoritis (f. 1921) skriver i skyggerne på samfundets bund. Den nu 94-årige Valaoritis store digtkreds, "Hjemløs den Store", viser eksistensen helt nøgent: "Jeg pisser hvor jeg kan komme til det, / æder hvad der dukker op, / er ikke bange for dårligt vejr, / trisser rundt dag og nat; / … Jeg nærer ikke had til nogen, / jeg er ikke revolutionær – / er bare et symptom, et ulykkeligt tilfælde"...Men der er mere ved denne tekst. Den er dybest set i samtale med litteratur fra hele verden. Eksistenser af denne art, der i selve hjemløsheden finder en flygtig følelse af hjem, møder vi hos de amerikanske beat-digtere, som Valaoritis lærte at kende under sit eksil i USA, og kinesiske digtere, som Lu Xun og Mo Yan, både før og efter revolutionen, og fortvivlede modernister som Rimbaud og Kafka.Og selvom vi har kendt hjemløse som avissælgere i mange år og mødt hjemløse palæstinensere, har ordet hjemløs fået en helt ny aktualitet i den seneste tid, hvor store grupper af flygtninge driver op igennem Europa. Når man er udenfor, er man helt udenfor.