Poetry
With Face to the Wall
Με το πρόσωπο στον τοίχο
Miltos Sachtouris · 1952
Synopsis
Short poems in which nightmare images follow one another with no declared link, born of the author's military life, of the recent civil war and perhaps of the Occupation. A carnival turns into a war scene, with its little wooden horse, its kites and its confetti, a Christmas bears the date 1948, and the title suggests the firing squad as much as men who no longer speak to one another.
Context
The book appeared in Athens in 1952, at the author's expense, from the printer Stéfanos Tarousópoulos, and the author sold only five copies. His biographer makes 1952 the critical moment of his course as a poet. The Carnival poem, which closes the collection, is one of those in which the war is the central subject. Kimon Friar gave in 1968 a selection of his poems under the title of the book. There is no French edition of the collection.
Who it is for
A very short collection, never given in French. Nothing to know beforehand: the images have no key and do not ask that one be sought.
Prizes and reception
Five copies sold on its release: the author, who considered it his best book, told the story himself, and it is today his most cited title.