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- Ελληνικά
World Poetry Day is celebrated every year on 21 March. It was inspired by the Greek poet Michael Mitras, who in the autumn of 1997 proposed to the Society of Authors that the celebration of poetry be adopted in Greece, as in other countries.
In 1999, the writer Vassilis Vassilikos, then Greece's ambassador to UNESCO, took the idea to the international organization.
UNESCO first adopted March 21 as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard.
On the occasion of World Poetry Day, the following poem sent by the Cypriot poet, historian-researcher Nasa Patapiou, who has been awarded the First State Poetry Prize by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth and has been honoured with the Athens Academy Prize as a historian.
Elizabeth-Eloisia*
Or
Xanthi Xenierou Street
Elizabeth-Eloisia opened the window
and gazed at the Bosphorus.
From Extreme Carpasia
I looked at her and greeted her
and she winked at me.
She did not chew laurel
yet she seemed to prophesy.
"I will give birth," she said, "to a poet
in the city of dreams
and I will teach him to love his roots
the folk dances of Smyrna
all the legends
about the rune of Cyprus
and all that was written
about the heptathen.
But in the city of light
there in the distance I see
my desire
being conceived
the garment of redemption
being woven
for the unholy nation".
And she closed her eyes and inspiration
as a vision dictated
to flesh out the phrase
with the initials F. E.E.D.A.
And it was heard from the Seine
it reached the Black Sea
there in Odessa
and the Near East
and a black cloud sprang up
and covered the land of Pelops at first.
Elizabeth-Heloise
before she closed the window
overlooking the Bosphorus
she made the sign of the cross
and suddenly the doors opened
and the Holy Sepulchre appeared in full view.
He then looked towards the East
and showed me the vast blue of the sky
"Friendship Greek Boundary Alytus"
was written up there
in bright and bloody writing.
Then I turned back
and gazed at the abyss of centuries
and prayed
to the new light that was dawning before me...
*Poet's note: Elizabeth Mamaki (Loumaka or Santi) Chenier (1729-1808), of Cypriot origin, was one of the first Greek lamas. She is considered to be the inspirer of the establishment of the "Greek-speaking Hotel" in Paris in order to throw off the Ottoman yoke in Greece. The motto of the association of the members of the "Greek Language Hotel" was the initials F.E.D.A. (Friendship Hellenic Desmos Alytos). Note that the "Greek Language Hotel" was the forerunner of the Society of Friendship. Elizabeth Mamaki or Sadi Chenier was the mother of the poet Andreas Chenier, whom she imbued with the values of Hellenism. In the walled city of Nicosia a street is dedicated to this great female personality, but with her surname misused as Xanthi Xenierou (Chenier) Street.
(EL/NG/NZ/GS)
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