Greeting
by Deputy Minister of Culture
Mr. Petros Tatoulis
Shadow
Line
A landscape is identified with its shadows
Harris Kondosphyris
Dido's
Problem
Harris Kondosphyris
Athens-Beijing
Irini Savvani
E
M I G R A P H S (Fragments)
Panos Bosnakis
How
I wrote the Emigraphs
Panos Bosnakis
Incense
Orestes Davias
The
musical circle of emigration versus the circular music
of foreign lands and homesickness
Vassilis Kokkas
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How I wrote the Emigraphs
When I was writing the Emigraphs my initial purpose was
to create originally a series of poems centered around
a narrative construct which could also enable the reader
to follow "emigration" from linguistic, historical,
cultural and anthropological perspectives. Speaking of
my technique, once more I definitely held the opinion
to connect language-centered writing with multiple layers
of cultural pretexts (a technique which I firmly employ
for about twenty years since when I began writing my long
poem REDO A). Nevertheless, for first time now the reader
will find an action plan to follow, a narrative line that
runs steadily throughout the poem.
The Emigraphs are divided in two parts. The first part,
entitled "Decolorization", refers to colonialism
and the slavery of native Africans, while the second part,
The "Arktexts", refers to contemporary Chinese
emigration. "Decolorization" speaks of the process
of becoming of black skin into white and from white to
black again, a process of darkness, a lost and changed
identity as described by Deleuze-Guattari in their seminal
work "Anti- Oedipus".
"Decolorization" begins with "Darktexts",
a collage poem from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
supplemented with autobiographical notes (or semioses)
of my own emigration. Then I employ various techniques
related to extreme experiences of mass murder and killing
of native Africans. See, for instance, the poem "Scotomos",
which could also be titled "Scotomus" to demonstrate
better the massively accumulating murder effects. I also
used cryptographic techniques of white castaways as they
were throwing to the ocean letters in bottles hoping to
reach their families. The entire scene of horror and craziness
of the colonial consequences are described here.
The Emigraphs are "redo-made poems", that is,
poems derived from techniques found in my poem REDO A
made by a constructed hybrid language, my own personal
mytho-language that speaks both Greeklish and Englgreek.
Both English and Greek represent discursive language and
imperial formations through history. “ R e d o” remains
a nucleus and socius made from Greek archaic pride, multiple
exiles and uprootings and eccliptic parts of deterritorialized
love moments. While in REDO A my main aim was to speak
on behalf of bodies “shattered in blood” ("aimatotsakismena")
and “sun-washed by gold” ("chrysoplimmyrismena")
that take pride and revenge when piled in stacks after
bloodsheds, likewise in Emigraphs, I set out to write
"fleeceseslifelessessoftengoatsins," words stacked
as the dead bodies of native Africans. My Greek is derived
from archaic and prehellenic inscriptions and my English
from withered English of repeated translations of King
James’s New Testament. These two languages, archaic Greek
as found in Homer and early pottery and perishable English
in the translations of King James represent the two eternal
arks for survival of all floating cultures.
In the "Arktexts" (the Texts of the Ark), the
Chinese series of poems, the landscape is not dark, but
dominates the sun and drought. The first poem “The God's
Earth” is a collage poem following Pearl Buck’s novel
The Good Earth. It is apocalyptic of the powerful relation
of Chinese with survival. No Land - no end, that is, no
end, a recycling of all ages in fate of survival. John
Cage is here remembered in his continuous relationship
with China. The presence of Cage is better evoked in “Un
China Men”. The prefix "un" shows a strange
neutrality and annihilation through the crowds. Everyone,
when emigrating to West, can be a Ming, un china ming,
people with no China and name.
Also, in the poem "LO"” food is immediately
connected with feelings of freedom. Both parts, "Decolorization"
and the "Arktexts" end with two anti-oedipal
love poems. HEARTS are separated and become HE/ARTS and
the “Arktexts” end with an enigmatic in C. What does "in
C" mean? perhaps in C (age)? that is to say that
we are all “caged” in the music of John Cage? In Conrad?
In Ezra Pound’s China in Cathay? in Cecilia, my love persona
in REDO A? it is also likely to mean in cosmos, in chaos,
in cathodos, or be an indication of the moon. Perhaps
it contains all these. For sure, letter C declares mystery
and escape… While masculine letter A declares the beginning,
creation, origin, art and happiness and feminine B demonstrates
companionship and completeness, letter C manifests the
ethereal world, the higher state of world and freedom,
the flying to universal soul of major arcana, where our
separated lives will meet again, where Polifilus will
meet Polia after their hypnoerotomachia, the Extended
Promise that gives life to every human being. All the
wretched ones in this world eventually deserve a piece
of Christ, a piece of Cross nd a secret Commandment
The poetic performance is accompanied by a mix of voices
that read the poems in a background with sounds from the
heart of darkness, the African Hades. The White readers
driven by the poems and sounds wander in this dark hinterland
trying to understand the African drama, the biggest crime
of all ages. In this wandering we are rescued only by
the Book of Books, the Holy Bible, that falls before our
eyes after Scotomos with the poem "Deinsular".
“Deinsular” demonstrates the decay of the English language
by the colonized to finally lead us to "The Arktexts"
the new emigration of contemporary Chinese. "The
Arktexts" are read by a narrator, while in the background
we hear Chinese accented English, French, German, Russian,
Portuguese, Spanish, Greek. Accents are also intermingled
with accidental fragmentary noises and sounds that recall
the Chinatown marketplace. The only recognizable noise
is Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, that shows the opera’s
diachronic and geographic journey.
Panos Bosnakis
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