Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

4th “Patras World Poetry Festival 2021

13^th - 19^th of December

LIVE & ON LINE EVENTS

This year, the 4^th “Patras World Poetry Festival” boasts a variety of original literary events taking place between the 13^th and 19^th of December 2021, hosting a total of 70 poets from 20 different countries.

The occasion of a calendar year combining on one hand the memory of the Greek people’s fight for freedom, and on the other hand the contemporary experience of confinement, led us to this year’s thematic center: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”. We bring novel aims and ideas, along with a greater and more essential need for expression, synergy and communication.

For 2021, the festival’s programme will be extended from 4 days to 7, hosting a multitude of events for audiences and participants both Greek and foreign, raising the bar and aiming to establish a tradition of cultural celebration.

This year too, for its most part, the Festival will be held online, a blended programme combining physical and online activities as adjusted to Covid-19 regulations, in a shifting terrain of cultural events during the pandemic.

The events of the week’s programme will take place in three (3) different places in Patras, each one of them a space for hosting cultural events. The events will be broadcasted ONLINE on the website www.culturebook.gr including both main and side events:

Main Events:

15^th-18^th December 2021

Five (5) Online Poetry Meetings including Readings and Roundtables: There will be lecterns where the guest poets will be presented; their works will be read (in 2 languages). The guest poets will also participate in the roundtables and discuss topics revolving around poetry and criticism.

18^th December 2021

Online Award Ceremony for the Greek “Jean Moréas” Poetry Award for 2021: The annual ceremony for the “Jean Moréas” Awards for Greek poetic art and production in its entire spectrum.

16^th December 2021

Newcomer Poet Marathon: A night of presentations and readings of new poets, combining physical and online presence.

Parallel Events: (11^th -19^th of December 2021)

Festival Anthology: Limited trilingual book edition plus eBook.
Online shows:
#meet_the_poets: tributes and interviews online at the culturebook.gr channel.
#videopoetry: presentation of video-poetry online.
Poetry Set to Singing: music radio tributes to poetry set to singing.
Exhibitions:
Poetry exhibition: presenting the works of poetry
Book exhibition of Newcomer Poets: presenting poetry collection books from new poets; participation from established poets and publishing houses.
Art Exhibition: “CONFINEMENT-FREEDOM-HUMAN REVOLUTIONS”
Poetry Alley: Presentation of poets and poems (the ones participating in the festival) on a central pedestrian precinct of Patras.

During both the physical and the online events, there will be participation from internationally acclaimed academics, novelists, critics, and representatives of institutions.

The Patras World Poetry Festival 2021 is organized by the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Foundation, the literary website Culture Book (culturebook.gr), while it is annually held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism*. The festival’s events are supported by the Greek Library of London, the University of Western Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University and many other esteemed institutions, since the festival takes place under the aegis of the Hellenic Republic’s President.

The Patras World Poetry Festival is one of the largest literary institutions in Greece, certainly the largest of its whole region, and it has already drawn attention amongst esteemed festivals internationally. Every year, the city of Patras hosts important figures of world literature and offers a richness of events, including poetry readings, seminars and cultural activities. The festival’s vision is to promote Greek literary expression worldwide and turn this capital of Western Greece into a European center for literary studies. Through its actions, the festival communicates with various departments of Greek literary studies all over the world and it chronicles contemporary poetic expression.

A detailed programme will soon be posted on the festival’s website www.culturebook.gr.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the Scholarly Representatives

Kotopoulos H. Triantafyllos

Chair of the “Patras World Poetry Festival”

Skiathas D. Antonis

Chair of the “Grafeion Poiiseos” Poetry Fountation

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EVENT MANAGER

Maria Alaniadi

Communication:

poetryfestival@culturebook.gr

grafeion.poihseos@culturebook.gr

Archival content available on www.culturebook.gr

Teresa Calderón, Chile

Patras World Poetry Festival PWPF 2021 Participants

Κυριακή, 05 Δεκεμβρίου 2021

0 Σχόλια

Teresa Calderón, Chile

The Poems

OF THE NAMELESS BIRDS

And tomorrow,
tomorrow what will become of the faces
I invented to look for me,
of the words I couldn´t
imagine in my presence.

Tomorrow, I ask,
what will become of the earth
where the araucaria pines rain down
and of the nameless bird
that pecked at plums
beyond cement and barbed wire.

Tomorrow,
what will become of the refuge
where I think among the lindens,
the ones that waited so long
for someone to return.
What will become of the kiss
they left tangled in violets
and still blinks there
like a secret we share.

And tomorrow,
what will become of the rain
that warmed the apple trees
when the eyes come back.

Will life be
and endless dusk, perhaps,
and the street
a great, immobile mirror?

Για τα πουλιά δίχως όνομα

Κι αύριο,
τί θα απογίνουν αύριο τα πρόσωπα
που επινόησα για να με αναζητήσω,
οι λέξεις που δεν μπόρεσα
να φανταστώ παρουσία μου.

Αύριο, ρωτάω,
τί θα απογίνει η γη
πλημμυρισμένη αροκάριες
και το πουλί δίχως όνομα
που δάγκωνε τις δαμασκηνιές
πιο πέρα απ' το τσιμέντο και τα καλώδια.

Αύριο,
τί θα απογίνει το καταφύγιο περισυλλογής
ανάμεσα στις φιλύρες,
εκείνοι που ανέμεναν πολύ
κάποιον γυρισμό,
τί θα απογίνει
το φιλί που άφησαν
τυλιγμένο μέσα στις βιολέτες
και τρεμοσβήνει ακόμη
σαν ένα μυστικό ανάμεσά μας.

Κι αύριο
τί θα απογίνει η βροχή
που ζέσταινε τις μηλιές
στο γύρισμα των ματιών.

Θα είναι, άραγε, η ζωή
ένα ατελείωτο λυκόφως,
κι ο δρόμος
ένας τεράστιος ακίνητος καθρέφτης;

(Μετάφραση: Yuli Perivolari)

De las aves sin nombre

Y mañana,
qué será mañana de los rostros
que inventé para buscarme,
de las palabras que no pude
imaginar en mi presencia.

Mañana, pregunto,
que será de la tierra
llovida de araucarias
y del ave sin nombre
que mordía los ciruelos
más allá del cemento y los alambres.

Mañana,
qué será el refugio pensativo
entre los tilos,
aquellos que esperaban tanto
algún regreso,
qué será
del beso que dejaron
envuelto en las violetas
y parpadea todavía
como un secreto entre nosotros.

Y mañana
qué será de la lluvia
que entibiaba los manzanos
a la vuelta de los ojos.

¿Sera la vida, tal vez,
un crepúsculo infinito,
y la calle
un inmenso espejo inmóvil?

* * *

CODE OF WATERS

The rain,
disconsolate,
devoted itself
to raining.
It brought a lost song
cradled underground.
It came, wounding
the red rooftops of the years,
the knees of a child.
With unblinking eyes
it drank from our conscience.
Later it will form tunnels,
flow across brick
and the water
will hide in the earth
like the dead.

Κωδικός υδάτων

Η βροχή
αφοσιώθηκε στο να βρέχει
απαρηγόρητη.
Έφερε ένα χαμένο τραγούδι
νανουρισμένο στα υπόγεια.
Ήρθε λαβώνοντας
τα κεραμίδια των χρόνων
τα γόνατα ενός παιδιού,
με βλέμμα σταθερό
κατάφερε να πιεί απ' τη συνείδηση.
Μετά θα σχηματίσει σήραγγες,
θα μεγαλώσει πάνω απ' το τούβλο
και το νερό
θα κρυφτεί στη γη
όπως οι νεκροί.

(Μετάφραση: Yuli Perivolari)

Código de aguas

La lluvia
se dedicó a llover
desconsolada.
Trajo un canto perdido
acunado en subterráneos.
Vino hiriendo
las tejas de los años,
las rodillas de un niño,
con ojos fijos
llegó a beber en la conciencia.
Después formará túneles,
crecerá por encima del ladrillo
y el agua
se esconderá en la tierra
como los muertos.

The Poet

Teresa Calderón was born in La Serena (North of Chile) on march 30^th of 1955. She had a teacher Spanish degree in the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile, where she also pursued a post graduate degree in Aesthetics. Poet, story teller and novelist, she also directs literary creation workshops. She teaches classes in various chilean universities. Part of her work has been translated to several languages and compiled in more than 30 published antologies. Her poetry works includes: Causas perdidas (1984); Género femenino; Imágenes rotas; Aplausos para la memoria; El poeta y otras maravillas; Elefante y Eslabones (2020) among others.

Awards

First Prize Poetry Contest of El Mercurio 1988 (Major chilean newspaper).
Prize Pablo Neruda 1992.
Award Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru 2000.
Prize Medal of La Serena 2002, for her contribution to Education & Chilean Culture.
Prize National Book and Reading 2004, best novel, Amiga Mía.
Prize Altazor 2009 for Elefante
Prize Literary Critics Group for Eslabones (2020) best poetry book published in 2020.