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- Ελληνικά
Kasteliotissa Hall, Nicosia
Wednesday, 4 October 2023 - 6.00 pm
To see who I am, I have been brewed and where my soil holds. I went in and stood in the house of salt, in a pit. A mandibled woman brought me water, offered me a sweet; I thank her. She also cut fruit from the Garden of my coveted home, fruits bright all sorts, diffused with lips true and honey soaked in the goodness of joy's antidotes. I told her thank you, cheered up, and asked to see my house, if I might.
"Of course you may," she says; "you may come to the bedroom." I enter, I see my mother against the wall, looking at me from a frame. I let go of my shame and go back to get my mother, the treacherous man from Troy. "Take her," says she, like a nun, "what am I to do with her now that I know? To tell the truth, we thought her an actress with that braid and flowers about her, and the grace with which she holds her umbrella."
It was worth adding, of course, the gloved, radial* hand that rested on a sofa; but what do you expect? Does he happen to know how many centuries have passed until we reach the retirement of sweetmeats? Big deal. It's a good thing the woman left me and went into my parents' house. Let's not go any further and get wild. I only wish: from time to time I may have her permission to see again the sweet face of my desire...
Distinguished guests,
Friends and friends,
Kyriakos Charalambidis manages to speak to our souls not only literarily, but first and foremost experientially, aesthetically and emotionally. His poetry takes us behind the barbed wire without checks and identities. He puts us in the home from the slit of the dream and in churches inoperative. In his childlike soul a humble snail raises his eyes to the sky, seeking a different view of things. One of the leading representatives of modern Greek poetry, his work has promoted the literature of Cyprus to all corners of the world.
That is why today is a day of celebration. A day imposed with absolute naturalness by the stature of Kyriakos Charalambidis, not only for modern Greek literature, but also for his time and for our country. We honour one of the leading representatives of contemporary Greek poetry.
A poet whose unfettered thinking, his creativity, but also his ethos, touches subtly but so substantially the most delicate strings of experiences and souls. We honour the thinker who combines the accidental with the enduring. The careful user of words, phrases, moments, feelings. The connoisseur, but also the hunter of the treasure of the Greek language, who respects, highlights and elevates its greatness on every occasion. The most important living poet of Cyprus.
As early as 1967, Takis Papatsonis said that Kyriakos Charalambides "enlivens the withered and ailing Modern Greek Poetry".
Born in Achna, he spent the first years of his life listening to his mother and his aunt Parthenopi recite Vassilis Michaelides' Chiotissa, adding verses to each other. And he soaked up everything he heard like a sponge. And then came Famagusta... His first poem about the Greek flag flying on the walls of Famagusta....The lilies of Famagusta... The Greek Gymnasium of Famagusta, which he likened to the Parthenon. Behind the columns, the light and the writings, he manifested his interest in writing. An interest that was reinforced by teachers of a particular culture, calibre and vision for education.
His high school years coincided with those of the liberation struggle of '55-59. A struggle that, he confessed, filled him with a deep ethos and peace of mind.
He studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. He worked as a philologist in secondary education and then at the Cyprus Radio Foundation, from which he retired as Director of Radio Broadcasting. He published great collections of poetry, translated, won awards and was widely recognized. Hellenism. For the poet, Hellenism should not be sought within Greek borders, for it loses its magic and its mythical extension. It is made to grow and excel when it spreads. One of these foci of Hellenism is Cyprus, one of the few that remained outside the geographical framework. For it, Seferis said that Cyprus is a place where the miracle still works.
For Kyriakos Charalambidis, the present cannot be detached from the past and cannot do justice to the future. In this future, poetry has its own place.
The present situation is distinguished, among other things, by rot and barbarism. We are experiencing as a people, and in the wider international environment, unprecedented challenges, with incalculable consequences for individual rights, social cohesion, the very survival of the democratic constitution and the European vision. How can poetry contribute to the transformation of our political and social life? What is the dividend of responsibility that is due to the Cypriot, in particular, as a Greek language and identity native, when European civilisation is being eroded from its roots - beside and within us?
The question could be posed differently: How much interest is there today in the Human Sciences? The study and cultivation of that being which the economy, technology, and even education itself, has abandoned, often obeying the laws of the market? "The question," Charalambides writes, "as to whether poetry can play a role in our times could also be posed as follows: Can the troubled world calm down and rest in what aesthetic harmony offers it?" "We need poetry," the poet further states, "and [...] it also needs us, because it too is in danger."
Woe to the country that does not need its poets, Kyriakos Charalambides has stated, noting that our own society must seek poetry. ''Our times, with the successive crises we are experiencing, give reasons to make poetry. Let it be desperate. Ritsos said that poets are the disconsolate of this world. We are inconsolable and that is precisely why we write. Sorrow not only gives birth to knowledge, but it multiplies it tenfold, said the great Russian director Tarkovsky. And the more darkness there is around us, the greater the need to light a candle and illuminate our surroundings. "Poetry is hope.
Friends,
Kyriakos Charalambidis is one of the major poets of modern Hellenism. His recognition is universal and international, attested by numerous awards and distinctions, translations and critical studies. He excelled as a poet and as a citizen, as an essayist and as a translator, representing our country "and the Common Hellenic Lalia", according to his favourite Kavadi model, "as in Bactria, as the Indians". In his person, the whole of Cypriot letters has been honoured throughout time. In an age of expendables he elevated Greek language and identity to their ethos and true stature. Starting from the cruciform point of our island, he has elevated the periphery to the centre of the universal Greek world.
Our chosen poet, Mr. Charalambides,
The House of Representatives honours in your person the values that the human spirit stands for. It is with great emotion that I call you to the podium to present you with the Medal of Honor of the House of Representatives. Thank you for enduringly honoring our country with your work and your poetic prowess.
The great and so influential poet Kiki Dimoula wondered in 2013 whether his language is entirely a gift from above or is completed through persistent practice...
I close with the words of the poet himself, as at the beginning of this great evening. If our people cannot draw from their suffering , then they have been unjustly given such a tragedy.
May you always be a beacon of hope for our land.
Thank you.
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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