Patras World Poetry Festival

DECEMBER 10th - 13th 2020

We would like to inform you that due to the implementation of a new lockdown in our country and the increase in the number of coronavirus cases, the organizing and scientific committee of the “Jean Moréas International Awards” and the Patras International Poetry Festival postpones the date of the event on December, 10-13 of 2020.

Digital Event

The Patras World Poetry Festival 2020 this year is entitled "National Poets" and plans to host 60 poets from 15 different countries around the world.

This year the festival be held online and virtually, as far as COVID-19 impact affects significantly the implementation of this event.

In the four-day online event there will be 6 meetings lasting up to 3 hours, where the guest poets will be presented with readings in 2 languages, via live connection. The events will be attended by invited representatives of institutions and the jury, while the program will include speeches, presentations, tributes, music, etc.

In addition, the following activities will take place within the schedule of the Festival events:

online Award of the annual Greek Poetry Awards "Jean Moréas" (Saturday December 12th)
Art Exhibition "National Poets" with the participation of 20 Greek artists and 10 artists from different countries (live and digital tour)
Collectible trilingual edition of the poems of the participants, in the first language of each artist, in Greek and English

The 3rd Patras World Poetry Festival 2020 is organized by the Poetry Fountation “Grafeion Poiiseos”, the literary website Culture Book (culturebook.gr) and the multicultural center Epikentro Plus History & Arts, while every year it is under the auspices of the Ministries of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism*. Supporters of the event are the Greek Library of London, the Cultural Center “Kostis Palamas”, the University of Western Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University and many other important institutions, as claimed under the Aegis of the President of the Hellenic Republic.

Awarding of Poetry Awards "Jean Moréas" for the year 2019

This annual event will be held digitally at one session of the PWPF Poetry Event 2020, with a presentation of the award-winning poets and recitations by them. This is the annual event during which the "Jean Moréas" Prizes are awarded for Greek poetic art and Greek poetic production in its entire range. They are recognizable nationwide and concern the poetry collections that were published throughout the previous calendar year from the year of the award. They refer both to young poets and newcomers and to those who are recognized with their poetic work along time.

The event is highly appreciated by the Greek literary and artistic circle of readers. In this year's event, in addition to the institutionalized awards, a very important foreign poet will be honored, who with his/her lifelong work honors the literature outside Greece.The Award Committee is composed of Greek University professors, as well as very important poets and poetry critics who will evaluate the work of the honorees.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the organizing committee.

Kotopoulos H. Triantafyllos, President of the “Patras World Poetry Festival”

Skiathas D. Antonis, President of the Poetry Fountation “Grafeion Poiiseos”

Alaniadi Maria, Event Manager of the “Patras World Poetry Festival”

Thanassis Hatzopoulos, Greece

PWPF 2022 Participants Patras World Poetry Festival

Παρασκευή, 05 Αυγούστου 2022

0 Σχόλια

Thanassis Hatzopoulos, Greece

The Poems

SPHINX

Whoever has to solve the mystery
And to render the truth
The enigmatic smiles that blossom
With charms and shed leaves of falsehood
Is the one who will find the path
To have access to the sea

To her riddle he answers
With a suitable song
Whose music charms her like glass
A shroud of foam its power shatters
And enwraps her, its words
Break the spell and the gaze

At her feet, at her mysteries
And at her bowels that now blossom
With sea-anemones, that the shipwreck may sprout
Set sail as a fruitful garden
Man bends his knee
For from there is born and falls silent
The work of his life and of his fate
The honeyed torment

Translated by David Connolly

(from the book SHARE IN THE SUN, 1996)

ΣΦΙΓΓΑ

Όποιος έχει να λύσει το μυστήριο
Και ν' αποδώσει την αλήθεια
Τα αινιγματικά χαμόγελα που ανθίζουν
Γοητείες και φυλλορροούνε ψέματα
Αυτός θα βρει το δρόμο
Να έχει πρόσβαση στη θάλασσα

Στο αίνιγμά της απαντάει
Μ' ένα τραγούδι πρόσφορο
Η μουσική του τη μαγεύει σαν γυαλί
Τη δύναμή της κομματιάζει και την τυλίγει
Σάβανο αφρού, τα λόγια του
Τη μαγγανεία λύνουν και το βλέμμα

Στα πόδια της, στα μυστικά της
Και στα σπλάχνα της όπου ανθίζουν πλέον
Ανεμώνες, ίνα βλαστήσει το ναυάγιο
Ως κήπος καρποφόρος ν' αποπλεύσει
Το γόνυ κλίνει ο άνθρωπος
Ότι από κει γεννιέται και σιγεί
Το έργο της ζωής του και της τύχης του
Το μελιχρό μαρτύριο

(από το βιβλίο ΣΤΟΝ ΗΛΙΟ ΜΟΙΡΑ, 1996)

* * *

LIKE TUMBLERS

The authority that men weave
They lead along uninhabited paths

Yet the breeze brings fragrances, injuries
The spring stirs minds with the invisible
Pollen in the foliage and a hidden
Sweat breaks out on the bodies

The time returns to its waning
People have nowhere to set
God's authority, like tumblers
They rise and fall

Translated by David Connolly

(from the book SHARE IN THE SUN, 1996)

ΣΑΝ ΣΑΛΤΙΜΠΑΓΚΟΙ

Την εξουσία που πλέκουν οι άνθρωποι
Σε ακατοίκητους δρόμους την οδηγούν

Όμως ο αέρας φέρνει αρώματα, τραύματα
Η άνοιξη σηκώνει τα μυαλά με την αθέατη
Γύρη στις φυλλωσιές κι ένας κρυφός
Ιδρώτας κόβει τα σώματα

Ο καιρός γυρίζει στη χάση του
Οι άνθρωποι δεν έχουν πού ν' αποθέσουν
Την εξουσία του Θεού, σαν σαλτιμπάγκοι
Υψώνονται και πέφτουν

(από το βιβλίο ΣΤΟΝ ΗΛΙΟ ΜΟΙΡΑ, 1996)

The Poet

THANASSIS HATZOPOULOS (Aliveri, Evia, Greece, 1961) is a poet and translator, he is also a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He has published fifteen books of poetry from 1986 to 2022, an outline and an essay of a poetics, a book of essays and three tales for children and two novels. His poetry collection Cell was awarded the Prix Max Jacob étranger 2013 in France, and his work Verbs for the rose was awarded the National Translation Prize for 2003 in Spain. Τhe body of his work was honoured with the Athens Academy Prize for Poetry in 2013. In 2014 he was deemed a Knight by the French Democracy in the category of Letters and Arts. He was deemed also with the State Prize for short story and with the Poetry Prize of "O Anagnostis" in 2022.

Ο Θανάσης Χατζόπουλος (Αλιβέρι Ευβοίας, 1961) είναι ποιητής και μεταφραστής, παιδοψυχίατρος και ψυχαναλυτής. Τα ποιήματά του (1986-2022) στεγάζονται σε δεκαπέντε βιβλία. Έγραψε δύο βιβλία ποιητικής, μια συλλογή λογοτεχνικών δοκιμίων, τρία παραμύθια, δύο νουβέλες και ένα ψυχαναλυτικό δοκίμιο. Απὸ τα βιβλία του, Ο εξ αίματος νεκρός κυκλοφόρησε στα γαλλικὰ και στα ιταλικά, τα Μιγαδικά καί Αμφιθαλή και το Κελὶ στα γαλλικὰ (Prix Max Jacob étranger, 2013) και τα Ρήματα για το ρόδο στα ισπανικὰ (Εθνικὸ βραβείο μετάφρασης στην Ισπανία, 2003). To 2013 τιμήθηκε από την Ακαδημία Αθηνών για το σύνολο τού ποιητικού έργου του με το Βραβείο Ποίησης. Το 2014 ονομάστηκε από τη Γαλλική Δημοκρατία Ιππότης στην τάξη των Γραμμάτων και των Τεχνών. Το 2022 τιμήθηκε με το Κρατικό Βραβείο Διηγήματος για το βιβλίο του Ιστορικός Ενεστώς και με το Βραβείο Ποίησης του περιοδικού ο Αναγνώστης για το βιβλίο Υπό κατασκευήν σημαίες.