T. K. Papatsonis
Answers found, poems outside the collections of 1911-1976.
philological curator – introduction – editor: Vassilis Makridimas
ed. Librofilo & Co, 2022, p. 288.

Discussing the work of V. Makridimas “In the constellation of contrasts. Critic and essayist T. K. Papatsonis” (Gutenberg, 2021), Vangelis Hatsivasileu noted (The Books’ Journal, 11/16/2021): “Fortunately, Takis Papatsonis is coming in our day to emerge from his many years of obscurity thanks to the young researcher, who carefully studied not only his essay, but also his poetic work. With the book in question, Papatsonis is further brought out of obscurity. On the one hand, 67 poems are published that Papatsonis (1895-1976) published in newspapers and magazines during his lifetime, but which he did not include in his books, on the other hand, his poems (28 in total), which after his death were selected from his archive and (first) published here and there.

The elegant edition provides arguments and documentation on the implications of such a move for Greek letters. From this we deduce three reasons why Papatsonis came to the fore. First, the verses themselves. Among them there are those that are only of philological interest, but there are also real diamonds. We are already wondering why they did not find their place in Papatsoni’s books at the time. As, I think, in the case of the unfairly invisible Zoe Karellis (1901-1998), so with Papatsonis we have a special rhythmic prose with a tonal, so to speak, staged narration, even when the voice speaking in the poem sounds like a sound, and does not narrate . Macridima’s notes on “the stages of overcoming a peculiar lyric with which neither neo-Hellenists nor ordinary readers are familiar” are numerous and useful in this respect. Valuable are his references to Savvidis’ apt remarks about Papatsoni. Dare we further question the relationship between Papatsonis and Karellis, based on the fundamental reference of both of them to Cavafy? Shall we take one more step? Let’s ask ourselves how much of the evergreen, classic Cavafy element that is now ingrained speculation will eventually instill future reading communities in favor of the emerging Papatsoni and Carelli?

Be that as it may, but also with the help of these poems – this is the second reason that makes Papatsoni important – the mature reader’s “line” can be more convincingly reinforced, which Macridimas suggests here, referring to the “extremely confessional” text of the poet himself, who (and it) was still in obscurity. At the same time, Papatsonis asks to be read as a metaphysical poet with poetic motives, and not as a “Christian” or “neo-Christian” poet, etc. Here is a directly formulated principle that would only be useful if it prevailed, helping to finally emancipate the community writers, critics and readers who stubbornly insist on reading their poets from the ugly point of view of all sorts of trampled exoteric readings. A third, no less important reason is the many fruitful interactions of Papatsonis with Greek and foreign poetry, as well as with the historical moment, as they follow from Macridima’s extensive comments in the book under discussion. They are a condensing of a larger study of Papatsonis’s entire poetic output, which is still pending review, together with a modern and usefully annotated re-edition of his entire output.