Once
I had roasted pigeon. On Cyprus in the autumn of 2005 at the home of
Niki Marangou, the poetess. She was one of the people that helped us
tremendously when Stella and I were preparing our anthology of
Cypriot literature, Wij
wonen in een taal
(We are living in a language) which was published in 2004. We went to
Cyprus to deliver the book. Niki invited us for dinner in her
beautiful garden in Agios Dometios. In that garden we saw a litter of
pups that delighted us. We were going to have a dog like that once we
would settle in Greece.
Two
years after Stella died I travelled to Cyprus again. This time for a
history conference. Almost a soon as I arrived at the hotel Niki sent
me an invitation. I took her Stella's posthumous poetry collection.
Again we were sitting in that beautiful garden, Niki, the writer
Nikos Nikolaou-Hatzimichaïl,
a good friend, and me. After a sun-drenched afternoon we left. Niki
gave me a handmade booklet with some of her poems. I still cherish
it. We would soon meet again, either on Cyprus or in Thessaloniki.
Niki came to Thessaloniki once or twice when I happened to be in
Holland, but we remained in touch. Nikos sent me his wonderful poetry
collection Διθαλάσσου. Niki travelled through Turkey, India and
the Near East and sent me colourful descriptions of her wanderings. I
hoped she would publish them in a book. I also hoped she would once
be invited by Poetry International, but up to now the organisers have
always scrupulously ignored my suggestions.
On
Friday morning I looked at Facebook. Someone had shared a link with
the newspaper To Vima. I saw Niki's photograph and thought 'another literary award.' Then I read the Greek word for perished. My
hart stopped beating for a second. While visiting Egypt she died in a
car accident somewhere near Faiyum. The Egyptian police has still not given any statement on how the accident happened. The Cypriot
foreign secretary spoke of a great loss for Cyprus. Nor only for
Cyprus but for all of the Greek speaking world and for European
literature. Besides a much awarded writer she also was a gifted
visual artist and dramatist. I think of that beautiful garden in
Agios Dometios and of the immense void she leaves behind.
©C.A.
Klok
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