Niki Marangou, Water Surfaces (Video)
Another video
And another
We are all still mourning the death of the distinguished Cyriot poet and artist Niki Marangou.
Dr. Stavros Karayanni, Managing Editor of Cadences: A Journal of Literature and the Arts in Cyprus, wrote:
"Her sudden death on February 7, 2013, shocked all of us. We will be grieving her loss for a long time. She was a distinguished author and a kind friend to many of us. She also served as Advisory Editor for the journal Cadences that she supported in so many important ways. We would like to dedicate the 2013 issue to her memory, to pay tribute and celebrate the legacy of Niki Marangou and her gifted contribution to Cypriot letters".
“I suppose that one of the most interesting things on my curriculum vitae is that my mother comes from Kozani, Macedonia, Northern Greece and my father from Famagusta. This gave me a wide view of the Greek World as I grew up at its eastern point. We have been lucky as a generation to witness extremes. High technology and my grandmother weaving, gypsies with dancing bears and computers" (Niki Marangou).
I have just finished reading, for the second time, her most wonderful book "From Famagusta to Vienna", translated into English by Marina Gilks. It is largely based on the lives of Niki's parents, with a little left to her imagination.
I have also been re-reading the emails that I was fortunate to receive from Niki Marangou (as well as poems and photographs of her travels), over the course of nine years, since we met at a symposium on 'Places and Spaces: Culture, Memory, and Identity' in Delphi, back in September 2003.
She was once kind enough to write this about my own work and poems in the Cypriot newspaper O Filelevtheros (27 July, 2006):
Ο ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΤΗΣ ΤΖΙΜ ΠΟΤΤΣ
Γνώρισα τον Τζιμ Ποττς σε ένα συνέδριο στους Δελφούς και μου έκαναν εντύπωση τα καλά ελληνικά του και η γνώσεις που είχε για την ελληνική λογοτεχνία. Μίλησε τότε για την Κύπρο του 1953-56, για τον Ντάρρελ, τον Σεφέρη, τον Κάρντιφ, για λογοτεχνία και προπαγάνδα στα δύσκολα εκείνα χρόνια του αγώνα της ΕΟΚΑ.
Αυτές τις μέρες κυκλοφόρησε ένα βιβλίο του με τίτλο CORFU BLUES, Ars Interpres Publications. Πρόκειται για μια συλλογή ποιημάτων, τραγουδιών, συνεντεύξεων, άρθρων που έχουν σχέση με την Ελλάδα, στην οποία έζησε πολλά χρόνια και στην οποία επέλεξε να κατοικήσει. Τα θέματα ποικίλουν, από τα ρεμπέτικα μέχρι τον Λόρδο Βύρωνα, από τους συνταγματάρχες μέχρι τα Ζαγόρια και την Κέρκυρα. Επιπλέον ασχολείται με τις αγγλοελληνικές σχέσεις, αμφισβητούμενες θέσεις, και ρίχνει νέο φως σε άγνωστες πτυχές της νεώτερης ιστορίας της Ελλάδας. Μου έκαναν εντύπωση τα ποιήματα του. Εχουν μια απλότητα και μια αμεσότητα που σπάνια συναντά πια κανείς στις μέρες μας, όπου συχνά βουλιάζει το νόημα του ποιήματος σε μια ακατάσχετη λογιοσύνη.
Ο Τζίμ Ποττς γεννήθηκε στο Μπρίστολ το 1944, σπούδασε αγγλική λογοτεχνία στην Οξφόρδη και κινηματογράφο στο Μπρίστολ. Δούλεψε για 35 στο Βρεττανικό Συμβούλιο σε διάφορες χώρες. Από το 2000-2004 ήταν διευθυντής του Βρεττανικού Συμβουλίου στη Σουηδία. Ένα ποιήμα του, μεταφρασμένο από τον Πάνο Καραγιώργο έχει τίτλο
ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΟ ΣΗΜΕΙΩΜΑ
Μεταξύ του Β-2 και της ατομικής βόμβας
γεννήθηκα. Ανάμεσα στη μέρα της απόβασης
και τη Χιροσίμα. Γεννημένος Βρεττανός στο Μπρίστολ,
χειμώνας του 1944.
Μακρυά στο Σικάγο
ο μεγάλος Τζο Τέρνερ και μπούκι βούγκι Πέτε
περνούσαν τη νύχτα παίζοντας και τραγουδώντας,
την ίδια μέρα που είδα το φως.
«Δεν αγαπήθηκα πραγματικά…»
Σαν μωρό αγαπήθηκα.
Λίγους μήνες πριν από τη Γιάλτα
ούρλιαξα για πρώτη φορά.
Συνέχισα να ουρλίαζω.
Ισως να άκουγα τις βόμβες να χτυπούν στη Δρέσδη,
ίσως να ήξερα ήδη
ότι η μισή Ευρώπη είχε χαθεί.
Χαίρομαι που τουλάχιστον δεν μπορούσα να δω
το άνοιγμα των στρατοπέδων του Θανάτου,
τα βρεττανικά Στρατεύματα Απελευθέρωσης
στην Πλατεία Συντάγματος,
τους Αμερικάνους ξέγνοιαστους στο Πίλσεν
τα ρωσικά στρατεύματα να πλησιάζουν την Πράγα.
ΤΟ ΠΟΙΗΜΑ ΤΗΣ
ΠΕΜΠΤΗΣ: ΤΖΙΜ ΠΟΤΤΣ
ΝΙΚΟΛΑΙΔΗΣ
Σκέφτομαι τον
Νικολαίδη
στην ίδια τάξη
στο Μπρούτον
Ηταν τόσο
μελαχρινός,
τόσο
διαφορετικός,
μεγαλύτερος από
τα άλλα αγόρια.
ήταν σωματώδης
για να τον εκφοβίζουμε
αλλά όχι τόσο
ψηλός για τα πειράγματα.
Κυρίως τον
αγνοούσαμε.
Αφού πέρασαν τα
χειρότερα
των Κυπριακών
δεινών
Πόσο εύκολα
ξεχάσαμε
Τα εφτά παληκάρια
που κρεμάσαμε
ο Νικολαίδης
εξοστακισμένος.
Μακάρι να μην
ήταν
Στο Σομερσέτ.
Translation by Niki Marangou
On 13 May 2006, Niki wrote about my poetry (the Greek and Balkan poems collected in Corfu Blues, the book, 2006): "It's a poetry that appeals to me, as it is real, straightforward and touches on history and the present at the same time. I was moved by the Byron Haiku*. I have spent the last six months reading 'around Byron' and I felt this poem expresses the situation of his death better than anything I have so far read. I liked very much the Balkan Blues."
* The Byron Haiku
'Twas the bleeding doctors
Did him in,
Not the Bloody Revolution.
A previous posting about Niki Marangou
Before that
And before that
On the question of Lawrence Durrell in Cyprus (the subject of my Delphi paper Contested Spaces/Competing Propagandas, Seferis, Durrell, Cardiff, Cyprus 1953-1956; included in Corfu Blues, Ars Interpres, Stockholm, 2006), Niki sent me this email:
14 September, 2003
Dear Jim,
Thanks for the interesting article. The volume I talked to you about is "The Final days of British Rule in Cyprus, Dispatches and Diaries of Consul General Taylor Belcher and Edith Belcher" (Sources for the History of Cyprus, Vol. IX, University at Albany, selected and ed. by W. Martin and P.Wallace, 2000).
It covers a latter period that the one you mention in your article. From 1957-1959. I found it interesting because it is personal. I quote for you page 47: "Forgot very important conversation yesterday at Buffavento during lunch about Larry Durrell. Not one good word said about him. May said if you didn't have "it" you mattered not at all with Durrell, that he was a very poor information officer and really not a very attractive or interesting person. When I mentioned that his wife had not been referred to at all in the book, Percival said, "which wife?" And then added that perhaps Durrell thought this was the wisest move. Both Greeks and English have little good to say of the man. Jeffry said that what is galling is that Durrell implies that the whole matter would have been all right had there been more Durrells on the job, and in actuality he did damned little". This is from the diary of the wife, Edith Belcher). There are two more quotes about Durrell in the book. If you are interested.
Before that
And before that
On the question of Lawrence Durrell in Cyprus (the subject of my Delphi paper Contested Spaces/Competing Propagandas, Seferis, Durrell, Cardiff, Cyprus 1953-1956; included in Corfu Blues, Ars Interpres, Stockholm, 2006), Niki sent me this email:
14 September, 2003
Dear Jim,
Thanks for the interesting article. The volume I talked to you about is "The Final days of British Rule in Cyprus, Dispatches and Diaries of Consul General Taylor Belcher and Edith Belcher" (Sources for the History of Cyprus, Vol. IX, University at Albany, selected and ed. by W. Martin and P.Wallace, 2000).
It covers a latter period that the one you mention in your article. From 1957-1959. I found it interesting because it is personal. I quote for you page 47: "Forgot very important conversation yesterday at Buffavento during lunch about Larry Durrell. Not one good word said about him. May said if you didn't have "it" you mattered not at all with Durrell, that he was a very poor information officer and really not a very attractive or interesting person. When I mentioned that his wife had not been referred to at all in the book, Percival said, "which wife?" And then added that perhaps Durrell thought this was the wisest move. Both Greeks and English have little good to say of the man. Jeffry said that what is galling is that Durrell implies that the whole matter would have been all right had there been more Durrells on the job, and in actuality he did damned little". This is from the diary of the wife, Edith Belcher). There are two more quotes about Durrell in the book. If you are interested.
Niki Marangou.
****
Taylor Belcher later became the US Ambassador to Cyprus, from May 1964.
****
Taylor Belcher later became the US Ambassador to Cyprus, from May 1964.
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