The CHARIOTEER An Annual Review of Modern Greek Culture NUMBER 14 19 7 2 HOURS OF LIFE a nouvelle by Ange Vlachos EVYTHOS a short story by Andreas Karkavitsas POEMS by aryotakis, Elytis, Vrettakos, Karelli, Sinopoulos, Decavalles, Anagnostakis, Theotoka and W. B. Spanos WOODCUTS by Achilles Droungas BOOK REVIEWS Published by Parnassos, Greek Cultural Society of New York IJ.OO ANT.nNJ-a: aEKABAAAE~ QKEANI~EI IKAPO~ 1970 "I am struck with wonder by the perfection of the form of these poems and by the fine sensibility of the images and thoughts that they emit. I drew great joy from their reading." Takis Papatsonis of the Academy of Athens "The whole collection is held in the same tone, the same deeply moved aware­ ness of the function of poetry and of the "being" of man, that unspeakable loneliness." George Themelis "[Poems] very Greek. Rich. A scintillation of the potentialities of our lan­ guage, and a symphony of the grace and joy of sound ... A realm of bril­ liant forms of speech, which reveals itself' as inexhaustible to the sensitive reader. Words like returning, folding waves, and always multicolored, wet pebbles upon our friendly shores, the mythical ones that build dreams and knowledge and memory, the substance and treasure, of the poet." Zoe Karelli "They are both intimate and strong, and give one a sharp impression of values which I would have found it hard to enunciate, but which are, I suppose, the strongest .part of what is most intimate in the experience of life." Peter Levi, S.J. "A poetry so real and select, which has discovered its true country .. Narration 'and description, dream and thought, and all those "classical" elements of poetry that once gave it its self-sufficiency in the realm of life and that of the spirit .... It would not be an exaggeration to say that this book should also be viewed as a model of the technique and structure of the modern poem." D. P. Papaditsas "I am impressed by the lyricism, the substance and the value of their lan­ guage. The reader is held totally in a poetic ·as well as an emotional state ..•. Everywhere in this modest book the light of poetry asserts itself like starlight." Nikos Karouzos Available from THE CHARIOTE·ER, Box 2928 Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10017. 144pp. $5.00. THE CHARIOTEER AN ANNUAL REVIEW OF. MODERN GREEK CULTURE Published by Parnassos, Greek Cultural Society of New York NUMBER 14 1972 EDITORIAL STAFF Executive Editors Andofiis Decavalles Bebe Spanos Managing Editor Katherine Hartis Editor in Greece Kimon Friar Book Review Editor George Thaniel Art Editor Nicholas Ikaris Copy Editor Belle Rothberg Business Manager James W. Manousos THE CHARIOTEER is published by PARNASSOS, GREEK CULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of New York. Editorial and subscription address: Box 2928, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10017. 2-Number subscription $5.00; 4- N11mber subscription $10.00. Copyright © 1972, by Parnassos. All rights re­ served. Printed in U.S.A. by H. Gantt, New York, N.Y. 10040. - THE CHARIOTEER solicits essays on and English translations from works of modern Greek writers. Translations should be accompanied by a copy of the original Greek text. Manuscripts will not be returned unless accom­ panied by stamped self-addressed envelopes. No responsibility can be assumed for theft, loss or damage. For their generous contribution toward the publication of this issue Parnassos is particularly grateful to: Dr. and Mrs. Mortimer Proctor Ms. Ann Elaine Tzougros PARNASSOS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL President Sophia Vardas Vice President George J. Philliu Treasurer Alexandria Christopher Secretary Dawn Spiropoulos Cultural Chairman Mary Gregory Social Chairman Demetrios Counes Membership Chairman Georgia Toumbakis Publications Chairman Charles Alikes Publicity Mary Nicolaras Board of Directors Costas Brown, Marie Noussee, James W. Manousos The staff of The Charioteer are members of Parnassos who donate their services. Support is earnestly requested from all who are interested in the aims of this publication. Your contribution is tax-deductible. TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL Bebe Spanos 5 TWO FOLKSONGS 10 translated by George Economou Kitsos ( 1750-1760) Death and His Mother ODYSSEAS ELYTIS Spring 11 translated by George Economou TAKIS SINOPOULOS from THE SONG OF IOANNA AND CONSTANTINOS 12 translated by George Economou "Ioanna's Invitation" "The Beheading" "The First Encounter" ANDONIS DECAVALLES Resurrection 15 translated by George Economou ZOE KARELLI Two Poems translated by David Posner Aspects of the Moon 16 Elegies for the Moon 17 MANOLIS ANAGNOSTAKIS Two Poems translated by David Posner The Decision 18' The Continuation 19 KOSTAS KARYOTAKIS Four Poems translated by Kostas Myrsiades Ideal Suicides 21 Repulsion 22 Preveza 24 Mihalios 25 NIKIFOROS VRETTAKOS Four Poems translated by Nikos and Zoe Samaras Greeks and Barbarians 27 On the Eve of Battle 27 Message 28 Unemployed 28 CORALIA THEOTOKA Two Poems translated by Theodore Vasils I Am Voice 29 Farewell 31 WILLIAM V. SPANOS Mycenae: Spring 1970 32 Kalymnos 32 Athens, September 1969 33 For a Political Prisoner 33 ANGIE VLACHOS biographical note by Peter Bien 35 HOURS OF LIFE a nouvelle 37 translated by Peter Bien ANDREAS KARKA VITSAS EVYTHOS a short story 88 translated by Solon Tsiaperas and Theony Condos REVIEW OF BOOKS 93 WOODCUTS Achilles Droungas EDITORIAL During recent years it has been a fashionable gambit among some literary critics to ask whether the novel is dead. Like the proverbial query about beating one's wife, the question shuts off discussion. Instead of lamenting the loss to literature, they have used the occasion to conduct post-mortems, analyzing the symp­ toms and diagnosing the causes of its demise. Some critics have blamed the debilitations imposed by the technical virtuosity of the two latest masters of the novel, Henry James and James Joyce. Their experiments with the shape of the novel, with the words and sentences which make up its fabric did, doubtless, reach extremes that left no room for rivals. Other critics have diagnosed the novel as a terminal case by explaining that the reasons no longer prevail whereby the novel justifies its existence either as a form of art or of entertainment or of communication. All these tasks have been taken over by the mass-media and are being performed more quickly and more efficiently. Certainly, even the most inveterate lover of the novel would not deny that the original justifications for its existence-that it serves society by uplifting the heart of its reader, that it nourishes his moral character, and never brings a blush to the maiden cheek-have long ceased to be valid. Judging by the raunchy scenes of violence and sex that have increasingly dominated modern fiction, "the heart" would seem to be the least vital organ of the contemporary reader. Whatever it was in him that de­ served to be called "moral character" has long since dissolved into whims of the moment and of personality. As for the maiden whose cheek is given to blushing, she has become as mythical as the unicorn. The reasons why she has become so and why heart and morality have lost their guiding power can be traced, some critics say, to the corruptive force of modern fiction. Others, however, insist that the fault is not in modern fiction; it merely reflects its source which is human life. Whatever view an independent ob­ server subscribes to-that fiction mirrors life or that life mirrors fiction-the descent into brutality was inevitable once the novelist abandoned his original moral purpose and aimed only to enter- 6 THE CHARIOTEER tain. How could it be otherwise, apologists for this descent maintain, when the contemporary reader is being systematically brutalized by social and intellectual forces which are themselves chaotic, unintelligible and inhuman? In literature as in life, a writer of popular fiction will claim, is not survival all? Hardly more than a lifetime ago, a Thackeray or a Dickens could hope to address several generations of one family on one occasion as they sat together through those long, pre-World-War twilights, reading, savoring, the words that the novelist had passionately united into phrases, sentences, scenes which took on an independent life of their own in the reader's mind. Hardly more than a lifetime ago, there was ample time for those words to stir concentric circles of meaning and wonder in the reader's being. The more they stayed with him, the more he felt them become a part of his world, the more they lent color and flavor to his awareness, and the more they helped to define and unify his sense of life. Now, two generations of one family rarely ever sit together on any occasion. If they do, it is usually because their attention is mesmerized by the television screen. On its magic face they watch simulations of life Hick past in a dazzling succession. Suc­ cession? No. That word implies sequence, one thing leading to another and another from the one before, according to some recognizable logic or justice. Succession in this instance is rather a juxtaposition in time, nothing more. A scene contrived to stun the viewer into vicarious horror gives way to a concoction of audio-visual impressions extolling the virtues of a deodorant or a diet-drink. This in tum evolves, according to the inexorable Darwinianism of survival on the air-waves, into the fanfare of a so-called comedy. Thus, the stuff of life is measured out, not even in anything so permanent or serviceable as Prufrock's coffee­ spoons, but in fifteen-minute intervals. The viewer's sense of life is at best made numb; at worst, it is drawn and quartered, as it were, on these fractions of the paid-for hour.