... «What I’m missing now
I’ll miss worse
in the days to come
and its name will be life.»
Katerina Aggelaki Rouk
By Clelia Charissi
«I’m grateful for what I miss
what I miss protects me
from what I’ll lose.
all my dexterities
that withered at the neglected life field
protect me from empty moves,
futile, pointless.
What I miss teaches me
what I have
distracts me
because it projects past icons
akin to future promises.
I can’t, I dare not
imagine a passing angel
because I land at a planet that’s other,
with no angels,
I land.
Love turned friend from craving
together we relish Time’s melancholy.
Deprive me –I beg the Unknown–
deprive me more
so I can survive»
Φωτογραφίες: Τέσυ Μπάιλα, Literature.gr
Katerina Aggelaki Rouk, Katerinaki, as her friends called her... she might have been born « grateful for what she’s missing» since «instead of a star, a scar shone over her birth», the blessed, unfortunate encounter with Staph, the disease that stood as the beginning between the « Antagonistic Love» of the pain of the body and the strength of the Soul of her Poetry.
This is the... « Value of sorrow»...
that rewarded her when at only 17, encouraged by her spiritual father Nikos Kazantzakis, she published her first poem titled « Solitude».
She couldn’t even imagine that « from the root of forgiveness for the slaughtered gift of existence, she’d learn to look at the World of recognizing her art from above».
Despite the great honor of the awards she has received ( 1st Poetry Award in Geneva 1962, 2nd State Award in 1965, Academy of Athens Award in 2000, Grand Award of Arts and Letters for her work, 2014),
the philosophy of «minimum» gallops in her humble mentality rendering her poetry irresistible!
On the other hand, a cosmopolitan from birth, she learned to «ogle life and spy on Her» according to her own terms between the eastern philosophy of her father and the western thought of her mother with the exceptional studies and competence in translating.
With this « dirt, wind, root» she held ever since she was a child, she tried to « grasp that values are born and imposed on what melts first, the body...
pushing away what’s redundant, arriving in the Sky with nothing with the..minimum».
source: International Poetry Festival of Crete
«The adjectives wilted
I can now only use my fantasies
to dress Poetry up.
But I will always serve her
as long as she wants me
because she is the only one who
makes me forget
my future’s sealed horizon.»
With all these and much more...
Katerina Aggelaki Rouk,
didn’t obtain sealed horizons
of a future she would lose
but of a future with which
«she grants us Victory, Nike» , because -our living generation-and all those to come...countersign heirs of her art’s eternity!
And she comes today next to us..for the final« goodbye on stage»
, το Ultimate Hail, joined hands with her spirit’s youth to walk coupled with redemption side by side to her godfather, Nikos Kazantzakis but her happiness also, Rodney Rouk « sprouting again at Plato’s field».
Crystal clear she bids us farewell, freed from every «needless loss» next to the godfather she eulogized Nikos Kazantzakis:
source: International Poetry Festival of Crete
She leaves us to:
« Wonder about the remaining mixtures
life will invent
between the wound of the definite disappearance
and the miracle of day-to-day immortality».
Allow me to now «transfer the cheerful breath» that was left to us by the gentle wind of our farewell in Egina..the place she adored...
the place she wished to return to for her final journey.. through images by friends and important artists who « opened in script their souls sails» prompted by «the last living handshake»:
«Thursday January 23rd 3 pm, Panagitsa, Egina.
The day was kind. The sea calm.
Piraeus-Egina with the hydrofoil. It fit all of us who love you. Egina was beautiful.
Sweet Virgin Mary loomed near the light blue water..."The fisherman and his boat inseparable into the blue” just like you say in one of your poems.
You were uncovered and peaceful. But your smile was etched in us .
The glory of your life’s walk from your birth until the end of time and the place you loved was visible.
The people around you had loved you and had been loved by you deeply.
The silence was reverent, true religious devotion.
the last embrace was given with soundless steps, wishes, tears, with great gratitude for all you have given us with words of life.
You exited the church uncovered.
Your body coated with flowers. As you were being bathed in sunlight we cheered Immortal!
The road to the cemetery was by the waves.
Everything clean and the trees white limed. We stood by your side as you took your place by your beloved Rodney Rouk. Your soul was now that of a sweet little angel.
A handful of earth clear and living from the hands that greeted you, embraced you and applauded you all these years.
Farewell our poet! We will go back to Piraeus with Apollo. A white seagull accompanied us until we left the island and then he flapped his wings and flew away..
Katerina “Angel” Rouk- or Katerinaki as the fishermen called you in Egina.
You are in our hearts.»
With gratitude,
Lina of the songs (Lina Nikolakopoulou)
«The most touching moment in the loss of this incredible, this rare poet Katerina Aggelaki Rouk, was I believe yesterday in Egina, her adored place, at the time of saying goodbye...
There were people there who connected with her and loved not only her poems, but also her humanity, her innocence, her personality, and her loud laugh.
What was touching, wasn’t only what was said by her friends and people from the ministry of culture and education...
What was touching was that there was this glorious sun in this encounter that she arranged “without her will,” this sun that was there to warm us and there was a scent of rare kindness, love, and truth.
People who were probably meeting for the first time.
Thank you Mrs Katerina ,we will miss you.»
Argyro Kaparou, singer
OUR KATERINA...
Katerina that lit up, Katerina of the west and east, the sweetest existence! She was also the antidote to the mundane reality and the example that fed the future endlessly. Her smile was enough to embrace the “strangest phenomena” she wanted to draw any remaining beauty from in them. She was a pure profit for our world, a true Poet! Plain substance in the Sun!
Ilias D Papakonstantinou, poet, Vice President of the Panhellenic Union of Writers
«Katerina Aggelaki-Rouk was both an incredible person and poet. To me, she was a valuable friend who taught me how to be an island of hope in a sea of sorrow»
Christos Koukis, Poet, Founder of the International Poetry Festival of Crete
«The day of January 23rd dressed in gold to welcome Katerina Aggelaki Rouk in warm Heaven.
The stillness of the wind, «the steady loss of pulse from the sea’s radio waves», the sun’s mating with the endless horizon, brought their smile upon the sorrow of us all who were on our way to bid her farewell.
Among them her beloved family, Romina Myrteza with her husband and their one-year old baby who she would baptize in the summer..
Her loving friend Professor in the University of Oxford and great Philhellene translator Peter Makridge along with the sisterly friend Jackie, her cousin Dimitra Aposkiti, beloved friends that transcended the power of art with the obituary...
Great artists, the amazing lyricist Lina Nikolakopoulou among them, the great scientist Stamatis Krimizis, Ilias Papakonstantinou (poet, Vice President of the Panhellenic Association of Writers), Αrgyro Kaparou (singer) , Αliki Kayialoglou (singer) ,
Εlisabet Karatzoli( composer-singer) , Anna Vorgia (writer, painter) , Panos Stathoyiannis (writer-poet).
But also representatives from the political field, from the Municipality of Egina and from literary sectors:
Αlezis Ziras Former president of the Company of Writers,
Literary Critic and Dinos Siotis poet , Founder of the Circle of Poets, President of the International Poetry Festival of Athens.
Among us... a little 13-year old boy with eyes full of wisdom, Orfeas Papakonstantinou whom our Katerinaki loved every time he visited her at her house to recite poetry. She saw a lot in this small child.. if you looked him in the eyes on that day, January 23rd, there was such depth that the silence bewitched you.. thus soothing our pain and its mortal nature.
«We were aware of her loud laugh even during the last farewell..
The circumstances were such that strangers among strangers we met… acquaintances among friends we connected.
There where she now triumphs in «complete self-knowledge» perhaps she worries for our human pain...
for all of us who hurt for her..cried
yet...
The anorexic pulse of her existence doesn’t take part in this world’s twirl anymore,
Nor does the source of tears:
«My sole participation
in the world’s twirl
is my steady breath.
Yet I feel one more
odd participation∙
I suddenly worry for
human pain.
........
Yes, I now want to cry
but the source of my tears has dried up»
( The anorexia of existence)
Our Katerina once told me..:
«Someone shouldn’t live among the clouds because rent is expensive there»..
I am sure that that there, up high no rent will cost her...
Perhaps the « immortality of her poetry» owes its wisdom to fear...
we who are younger..I personally, who I was blessed to meet her… to kiss her...who she let touch part of her soul that her spiritual superiority generously gave away,
I personally..
Owe part of my wisdom.. to her magnanimity.
Katerinaki.... I love you...
Bon voyage.
Κlelia Charisi
Journalist, poet
