EQUINOX

It will be a spring day just like the time

when you come to find me.

It will be equinox.

You know, when day fights with night.

And I shall have ready for you a poem

which will tell you about all those I have never managed

to tell you in simple words,

because I have been afraid of the prosaic.

You know, of these commonplace things,

of the awkward, of the indeterminate.

It will have

a complaint, it will have a promise.

It will have an expectation.

It will have rain, lots of rain

to wash out vanities.

It will have railway journeys which this time

shall be on time.

It won’t have sorrow, it won’t have despair.

It will have starlight, it will have a festive mood.

It will have infinitude and a world... ageless.

Fragiski Stavraki, daughter of Aristotelis Stavrakis, was born in Karpathos and has been living in Piraeus ever since her high school years. She studied in the Department of Classical Philology at the University of Athens and in the Department of History-Archaeology of the same University.

She has had an active role as a President in a number of scientific associations and cultural and local societies. She was responsible for editing, expanding and improving the republication of the ‘History of the Island of Karpathos’ in two volumes by the renowned folklorist Michael Michaelidis-Nouaros.

Her articles, book reviews of her collections of poems and interviews have been published in various papers and magazines, as well as the prologues in many books of literature and in books on Hygiene Education.

Her work has been featured in Literary Magazines, on the Radio and on the TV. Collections of her poems as well as many of her poems have been awarded prizes in literary contests.

WORKS IN GREEK

• Concerning the Mundane, Poetry (Dodoni, 1st and 2nd publication, 2001.
• A Truce with Time, Poetry, Dodoni, 2002, 2nd publication, Philipotis, 2018.
• Narrations from Life in Othos of Karpathos, Folklore, Dodoni, 2001.
• Nostos of a Karpathian, Folk Poetry, Noesis, 2003.
• A Matter of Familiarization, Poetry, Noesis, 2004, First Prize of the Literary Club ‘Konstantinos Hatzopoulos’.
• Production of “Trip to Karpathos with the poetry of Fragiski Stavraki’’, a short film with the actor Stavros Zalmas, shown at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
• Nothing is a Stranger Being than Man, Poetry, Iolkos, 2014, First Prize of the Macedonian Artists’ Union.

Always, Poetry, Vergina, 2020.

STAVROS NIKOLAIDIS

Stavros Nikolaidis was born in Serres but his family roots are

in Brussa, in Asia Minor. A graduate of the Dept. of English

Philology of the Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki, he

was awarded a Master’s degree on Language and Literature

in Education in the Institute of Education, UCL. He teaches

English language in Greek Secondary Education, and has also

been an editor of students’ magazines (for Greek students

abroad, ‘Aerostato’, Ministry of Education, 1991-93).

His first publication was at a local Serres newspaper

(‘In the Country of the Lotus Eaters, Proodos, 1975-76), on

memories recorded from life in Arizona. He has translated

into Greek Laurence Durrell (A Smile in my Mind’s Eye,

Alexandria, 1993), Betty Lover Mahmoody (For the Love of

A Child, Psychogios, 1992) and into English poems from

Ancient to Modern Greek Poets set to music for a choir

by classical composer Giannis Papaioannou (Choral Works

a Capella, Nakas, 1993); also, in Greek Isaac Bashevic

Singer’s ‘The Certificate’ (unpublished). Since 2004 he has

been writing book reviews for Leiden University’s Brill

publications in Journal of Oriental and African Studies and 

articles on Greek Education and the Literature of the Middle

East and Northern Africa in the same Journal as well as in

other literary magazines (Klepsydra). He has contributed to a

collection of short stories (Pandemia, Stories from the Lockdown

24grammata, 2020) while his historical novel Corsica was

published in the same year (24grammata, 2020). His latest

work, The Swan of Saidona, is under publication.