We were just a one-room bookstore
we didn’t have any money for lawyers
Πόσο σημαντική είναι η δουλειά των εκδοτών και των βιβλιοπωλείων το έχουμε όλοι καταλάβει. Πόσο μπορεί να αναδείξει ανθρώπους, ρεύματα και να επηρεάσει την δραστηριότητα της γραφής και της σκέψης. Στην Ελλάδα έχουμε επίσης παράδοση σε αυτό και έχω σημειώσει σε άλλο ημερολόγιο μια λίστα από τους εκδοτικούς οίκους στην Ελλάδα και τον ρόλο που διαδραμάτισαν. Τώρα κάνω μνεία στο βιβλιοπωλείο City Lights Bookstore, που ιδρύθηκε το 1953 στο San Francisco, California, από τον Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ένα βιβλιοπωλείο πρότυπο, που επηρέασε την τότε και την εκεί ποιητική ροή – βέβαια άλλες εποχές, άλλη χώρα, άλλες διεκδικήσεις. Κρατώ στα χέρια μου ένα βιβλίο των Εκδόσεων Νεφέλη με ποιήματα του Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Μου αρέσει η καθαρή και απλή προσέγγιση της καθημερινότητας αλλά και των συλλογισμών του. Δεν κρύβει τίποτα. Αυτός έτσι έδρασε-αντέδρασε στην εποχή του. Παραθέτω ένα πόνημα του Lawrence Ferlinghetti στη γλώσσα που γράφτηκε, ένα ποίημα του που αγαπώ.
I Am Waiting, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder
[Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Am Waiting” from A Coney Island of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation]
[Copyright © Μαρία Σκουλαρίκου-Πανούτσου]
ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ: Ενημερώνουμε τους αγαπητούς αναγνώστες ότι η Στήλη «Εξομολογήσεις ενός ημερολογίου», της Μαρίας Πανούτσου, ξεκινώντας από την Τρίτη 12 Σεπτεμβρίου 2017 και μετά θα δημοσιεύεται κάθε 15 ημέρες, τουτέστιν κάθε δεύτερη Τρίτη την ίδια ώρα, στις 21.00.
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