The newly founded VITSENTZOS KORNAROS Cultural Center had planned, as its first event, to invite to Sitia the distinguished contemporary scholars of Seferis, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Giannis Kiourtsakis and Vasilis Papadopoulos, to renew the bond between the Nobel laureate and his fellow poet from Sitia. Seferis, as is well known, established Vitsentzos Kornaros as a leading Renaissance poet with his 1947 essay “Erotokritos”, marking the start of a wealth of related studies that continue undiminished. The “will” of the coronavirus, however, was different, and the event was postponed. Yet, by good fortune, Ambassador Vasilis Papadopoulos, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic and author of the recently published study “Diplomacy and Poetry: The Case of Giorgos Seferis”, came to Sitia with his wife Maira for their summer holidays, as guests of the Cultural Center’s partners, Giorgos and Aliki Galanaki. The interview that follows shows that we did not miss the opportunity. We met at the Cultural Center’s offices on the afternoon of August 6. It was the day the agreement with Egypt was signed, and he even explained to us its importance for our country, showing us the relevant map on his phone.
A profound and unassuming man, who by nature and by position walks in the footsteps of the poet, spoke to us about everything we asked: his book, the intense relationship between Seferiadis the diplomat and Seferis the poet, Kornaros, Erotokritos and the timelessness of the language, politics and politicians… He spoke to us without evasion, “with knowledge and with manner”, showing us how relevant this manner of Kornaros and Seferis can be, when it can reveal to its initiates what is coming.
During this conversation another “dialogue” unfolded, this time of ideas, with poetry and art. So that not the slightest part of this unique connection is lost, we are publishing the whole interview HERE (LINK).
Antonis Anipsitakis – Sofia Fousteri