The topic of the body is among the central elements of Sinopoulos' poetics. It often functions in close relation with the awareness of his materials displayed by the author. Generally speaking, the body appears in Sinpopulos' oeuvre by means of detailed descriptions of the sensuality of the female form and of the memory of the male body, which has been wounded, mutilated or worn-out during the war. These people and bodies from the past are idelaized, either morally or aesthetically. Decay and absence finally get to make their mark on them all as they haunt the poet's memory.
In Συλλογή I (1951-1964), the body as frame (σώμα) is much more prevalent than the body as flesh (κορμί). The body is often idealised; it is mainly described in terms of nature, as the first or second part of a metaphor. For example,
the body is compared to natural elements
(«Ο αυχένας σου είναι δροσερός σαν το ποτάμι / Το στόμα σου είναι ένα πουλί […] οι φλέβες σου είναι δέντρα με καρπούς […]», Ι 261-262)
or, in complementary fashion,nature is compared to bodily elements
(«η νύχτα κρατάει τα στήθια της που στάζουν σκοτάδι / η νύχτα γεμάτη εγκαύματα […]», Ι 174).
In Συλλογή II (1965-1980), it is the body as flesh that is predominant, thereby revealing the more frail and earthly form of human existence, which is threatened by sickness, decay and death. Nature too is transformed, laid bare, herself sinking or in ill health, taking part in the adventure of human matter
Λίγον καιρό μετά από τη γραφή, το ποίημα που είχε φτιάξει για τη θάλασσα, ήταν γεμάτο βρώμικα νερά και πεθαμένα ψάρια
To address the topic of the body as frame or as flesh in the poetry of T. Sinopoulos in integral fashion necessitates a lengthy and detailed study that is of great interest. Sinopoulos was a doctor by profession. He describes more than what is on the surface, pausing to examine, via x-rays, as it were, the more profound bodily elements. He observers much more than those that are obvious to the senses, including those elements that are hidden: bones, entrails, blood. Deepere still he observes the 'inner waters', the face within the face, the eye within the eye, the transparent hand, or fever. One of the aspects of this broad topic is the 'bodification' of the poem and the words that make it up, of the poetical matter which confronts him and with which he has to wrestle. The matter of the poem as bodily flesh and the bodily relationship of the creator with his work is the main subject of this essay.
Most references to this matter are concentrated in the last part of the first volume, in the collection Η ποίηση της ποίησης and in the second volume especially in the collections Το Χρονικό, Ο Χάρτης και Νυχτολόγιο. As is only to be expected, we note that the frequency is much greater in those collections where the author discusses himself, venturing thoughts on the poetic process and the relationship between poetry and memory.
The material we are dealing with, as regards the relationship between body as frame and body as flesh on the one hand and poetry on the other, can be subdivided into two groups of references:
The poem and its words are presented as indepedent, living organisms, performing bodily functions and suffering from bodily ailments, and
The poet, dependent in a directly physical manner on his poem and its writing, suffers and struggles while attempting to control his creation.
Poems and words often lie at the very centre of Sinopoulos' interest. We are dealing with an artisan poet, pondering over his material, dealing obsessively with his style, anguishing over his attempt to to give a new order to his poetical speech, which at times transcends traditional relations between signifier and signified. In Νυχτολόγιο he has this to say on the matter:
Γιατί δεν γκρεμίζεις αυτό το καλοστημένο (ή δήθεν) γλωσσικό σου οικοδόμημα, γιατί δεν το ξαναφτιάχνεις απ’ την αρχή, με άλλη γραμματική, με άλλη σύνταξη, άλλες λέξεις, (ακόμα κι αυτό) άλλες σχέσεις, συναρτήσεις, δομές; Γιατί δέχεσαι υποταγμένος το κοινώς αποδεχτό νόημα, τη σημασία που σου έχει επιβληθεί αυτών ή εκείνων των λέξεων; Γιατί δεν τις τορπιλλίζεις; γιατί φοβάσαι;
And yet, in the same collection, he concludes as follows:
Σ’ έχω τσακώσει αρκετές φορές να επινοείς, να κατασκευάζεις. Άσε τα πράγματα να έρθουν μόνα τους, σου το είπα κι άλλοτε. Ό,τι και να κάνεις το κάλπικο προδίνεται, φωνάζει. Ενώ το αληθινό, το γνήσιο, λάμπει από μόνο του, είναι μέσα στα κείμενά σου, συνεννοηθήκαμε;
The body of the poem, whether it be human or animal, has a life of its own. Words and poems are gestated, born, breathe, fall sick, hurt, bleed, are crippled, walk, think, get stubborn, scream, swear, wrestle with the poet, throw stones at him, they have hands, tail, bones, a cut throat. An example of the difficulties encountered by the poet in writing and giving birth to a poem is given in Σημειώσεις, VIII in the second volume:
Στο μάκρος του παρόντος κειμένου ένας ανάποδος πάει κι έρχεται δαιμονισμένος πυρετός. Μια πάνω και μια κάτω είπα στο τέλος τελικά θα σπάσει το θερμόμετρο. Βγάζεις μια λέξη και το ποίημα τρίζει κάποτε σωριάζεται στο πάτωμα / Η γραφή περπατώντας τώρα δύσκολα, στραβά, πότε χωνεύει το θεματικό υλικό πότε ταράζεται από σκέψεις απειθάρχητες παραστρατήματα παρεκτροπές της μνήμης. […] Μέσα στο ποίημα που παλεύω σήμερα κρύβεται ένα άλλο ποίημα κινείται πίσω από τον ίσκιο του κι αγέννητες – τώρα γεννιούνται οι λέξεις.
In Ποίηση της ποίησης Sinopoulos again employs the image of newly born words:
Οι λέξεις ματωμένες γεννηθήκανε ταίριαξαν τρέμοντας κοιτάζοντας η μια την άλλη,
but also of their imminent resurrection:
Κανείς δεν ξέρει ποια τρομαχτική ανάσταση σχεδιάζουν αυτά τα νέα ποιήματα. Το αίμα τους καίει τα δάχτυλα και στάζει τώρα στα χώματα. Από τις πέτρες βγάζουν το κεφάλι τους ανεξήγητες εκκωφαντικές κραυγές.
In the extracts just quoted, the poetic material does not obey to the control of its creator. He observes the instance of the birth and formation of the poem as a revelatory procedure in which he cannot or will not intervene. And yet, viewing poetical creation as revelation is, apparently, at odds with the identity of the poet-artisan that is present in Sinopoulos' works and is mentioned by him more than once. It is also at odds with his obvious attempt to check the contents of memory, so he can chart History and events. In reality, over and above words and signifier, Sinopoulos is worried about myth and meaning, about the signified, which is not there (σ’ ένα κόσμο άδειων σχημάτων), or resist all attempts at their charting:
Σε τούτο το έργο, αν καλοκοιτάξεις, υπάρχει αυτή η υπόγεια συνέχεια, κρυφή αλυσίδα, κάτι αφανέρωτες ανταποκρίσεις, δίχτυ πολύπλοκο ή αθόρυβος μηχανισμός. Στο πάνω πάτωμα κινούνται ρυθμικά τα επιπολής στοιχεία, λέξεις, δεσίματα κι αναφορές, στιβάδες, στρώματα της γλώσσας. Στο κάτω πάτωμα χωνεύει ο μύθος. Μην προσπαθήσεις να τον βγάλεις από τη φωλιά του, δεν εξαγοράζεται. Είναι ένα ζώο ογκώδες και κακό, δε θέλει φως, δαγκώνει τη σιωπή του.
and
Φρικιαστικές ανταποκρίσεις φρικιαστικές σημασίες. / Τα σιδερένια συνθήματα το κατακάθι του σκοταδιού στο σκυλίσιο κεφάλι σου. / Το κατακάθι του έρωτα καθώς οι λέξεις / όπως οι λέξεις / σ’ αυτό το ποίημα το πικρό που γυρίζει ξαφνικά και δαγκώνει την ουρά του.
The metaphor of the poem as a strange, 'tail-eating' animal, a reptile or amphibian, causing injury to its own self by biting on its tail, suggests the mysterious and uncontrollable workings of poetical matter, which is identical to memory and erects hurdles to the poetical process and to the transformation of past experience into present writing. The body of the poem creates a closed circle, thus ensuring its separate state of being, hinting at its being born of itself and excluding its creator from its interpretation, from its composition even. But, by the same process, the 'tail-eating' poem also entails its fragmented, chequered nature, or the self-mutilation of the poetic text, which is unfinished, like the animal's tail, is incomplete and is buried in silence. Convoluted writing, unfinished text, the phrase or whole poem which stands incomplete, these are all hallmarks of Sinopoulos' poetry. In conjunction with the notion of the poem standing on its own, they overthrow the notion of the poet being all-powerful in regard to his material (Οι πρώτες λέξεις μέσα στο ποίημα κραυγάζανε απειθάρχητες λες και βρισκότανε σε διαδήλωση. Οι τελευταίες γονάτιζαν χαμένες στη σιωπή και την έκσταση).
The identification of poetry and memory and the extensive listing of of names and places from the tragic past are constants in Sinopoulos' poetry. They lend weight to the suggestion that all the poems and words who are endowed with their own vulnerable bodies, whose hands hold their own severed necks, screaming, are but a metaphor for all the dead people and bodies which haunt poetic speech and strive to surface out of the oblivion of silence and time.
The poet, in describing the bodies of the dead, whether at the bloom of beauty (descriptions of women), or at the time of the decay (descriptions of men), their deaths brought about not by time but by war, attempts to construct a Nekyia of his own, his aim being to transport into a reality which is void of meaning the bodies and not just the mere names of the dead; the signified, which is words of flesh and blood, the poem within the poem, and not just the signifier and the sounds of words.
Στη γλώσσα της ποίησης σημασία έχει όχι μόνο αυτό που βλέπεις (διαβάζεις) γραμμένο αλλά και το άλλο που δεν βλέπεις γραμμένο. Αυτό που κάποτε ακούγεται σα δεύτερος ήχος στα ενδιάμεσα των συλλαβών και των λέξεων – δεν είναι η σιωπή, μη βιάζεσαι – είναι ο ήχος που αφήνουν οι λέξεις όταν οι συλλαβές κι οι λέξεις τρίβονται – τα κόκαλά τους τρίβονται – η μια με την άλλη … Καμιά φορά – σπάνια – πίσω από ένα ποίημα ή στα ενδιάμεσά του ακούς καθαρά κάτι σαν ένα δεύτερο ποίημα – η αίσθηση είναι παράξενη, ταράζεσαι τότε. Κι αυτό φυσικά δεν είναι ο αντίλαλος του πρώτου ποιήματος. Είναι ένα άλλο ποίημα, με μια δική του συναρμογή συλλαβών και λέξεων, διαφορετικό απ’ το πρώτο.
It should come as no surprise that a poet who posits that a poem has an uncontrollabale energy in of itself lives bodily through his everyday relationship with his poetry as a wrestling match, as a struggle to put his materials in order and to make them obey him. A bodily relationship with poetical speech is a topic he shares an interest with many other poets of the first post war generation, such as Carousos, Sachtouris, Cyrou, or Dallas. It is but a pathogeny with very precise symptoms and maladies, such as fever, chill, pain, wound, burn, mutilation, disability, inarticulacy, breathlessness, drowsiness, delusion, some of which are made-up, as is Dallas' 'jammed soul', the 'green hexagonometrical poet's head' of Sachtouris or Carousos' 'neurosis of ambidiction'.
In Sinopoulos' instance, the difficulties of writing and communicating are seen, in the first place, to be bodily symptoms and pathogenic situations that hinder speech:
1. asthma
Είμαι γνωστός ασθματικός. Λοιπόν είναι δικό μου το λαχάνιασμα, όπου τ’ ακούτε.
2. stammer
«Θα σου σσπάσω τα μούτρα σου, θα σε σσκίσω, θα σε σκα(ο)τώσω…Πσοφίμι!
even
3. barking
Το σκοτεινό φως της πατρίδας μου σα φίμωτρο, εμποδίζει τους ψεύτες να γαυγίζουν. Εγώ γιατί γαυγίζω;
The poet is bodily infuenced by his writing and is usually literally rendered ill by his attempt to deal with his material, in a struggle that is a pitched battle. Words bring about pain and sickness and often they get stubborn and revenge themselves on their creator, demanding their presence within the poem:
Οι λέξεις που έμειναν έξω από το ποίημα συνεπαρμένες από μιαν ατέλειωτη παραφορά σωστές μαινάδες παίρνανε πέτρες και λιθοβολούσανε βρίζοντας ακατάπαυστα και τον ποιητή και τους διαβάτες.
Μια γλώσσα, ερχόταν δύσκολη από το μισοφώτιστο εσωτερικό, είχε ένα πάθος, είχε ένα πόνο, δε σ’ άφηνε στιγμή να πάρεις ανάσα, λαχάνιαζες καθώς περπατούσες, μια λέξη σφήνωσε στο λαρύγγι, μια λέξη την έφαγες, αχώνευτη σα μολυβόπετρα, μια λέξη ακίνητη φράζει πεισματικά το πέρασμα και δε μπορείς να συνεχίσεις. Δυσκολίες.
One of the fundamental objects of Sinopoulos' poetry is the quest for truth, the evelation of the other side of things, which the author often locates in the sphere of dreams. What we call reality is often considered to be a delusion or nothing, in opposition to the dimension of memory and dreams, acting as mediators between poet and present and as a necessary condition of the poetical process.
Sinopoulos' aim is to reenact, through his words, which belong to the sphere of reality, that which resists the senses and remains hidden or unsaid. He searches for new uses of words and sounds to reveal the truth beyond appearances and faulty reenactments, while realising the arduousness of his task. It is so difficult to realise this aim that even his physical well-being is affected, something which he experiences as bodily pain.
Although he aims to salvage the remembrance of 'others', meaning, of the dead, the subject of his poetry is and remains to the end the central personage of a speech that is both self-referrential and 'hetero-referrential'. It exists within his writing and it is through its means that words and people also exist, attaining form and voice, are fed by the cells of their creator, often enough going as far as to break loose of his guardianship. The poet accepts this eventuality in order to attain the deeper essence of expression.
Τρίβοντας με δύναμη κάτι στραβές κακομούτσουνες λέξεις για ν’ ανάψει μέσα στο ποίημα μια αληθινή φωτιά, έτσι έκαψε ασυλλόγιστος τα χέρια του κι έτρεχε στους γιατρούς.
Η αναζήτηση της αλήθειας ή του θαύματος πέρα από την τυπική χρήση των λέξεων σε ωθεί σ’ αποκαλύψεις που ποτέ δεν υποπτεύθηκες σχέσεις της μνήμης και του χρόνου με το σώμα σου αναγκαιότητες των σπλάχνων σου ξεριζώματα απ’ την ίδια σου την ύπαρξη τόσο οδυνηρά που τότε μόνο νιώθεις πως οι λέξεις και τα πράγματα ζούνε μιαν αυθύπαρκτη ζωή και σε πείσμα της νομιμότητας αναζητούν μια καθαρότερη έκφρασή τους.
A typical feature of Sinopoulos' poetry is the image of an “internal eye”, immobile and restless, never shutting, able to see in the dark. It is an eye that exists within the poet himself, within his own eye. It is often styled the 'black eye', not only because it can see in the dark, but also because it is related to the darkness of death. Its being single and immobile implies a rounded view of things through a gaze which unites the dualities of human sight, of the two actual eyes.
It can be seen as being the 'eye of the soul', allowing the poet to look at his own self from a distance, a sort of second sight, as it were, a look at his own internal world and at the unseen side of things, remaining vague and hidden in the shadows. It can be also seen as the eye of dreams, which Sinopoulos' poetry holds as another, maybe even a more valid, reality. In any event, it could be said that this sleepless 'third' eye is related to the poet's being unavoidably linked with the external world, that of natural phenomena, while also expressing a suspicion of reality as comprehended by the senses:
Το μάτι αυτουνού του αγνώστου με κοιτάζει, με παραμονεύει ακοίμητο. Και δε μπορώ να γράψω τίποτα να διαβάσω τίποτα. Το μάτι του μπαίνει μέσα στο δικό μου το μάτι κι ανάβει το φακό του, ψάχνει, κατεβαίνει τις σκάλες ψάχνει μέσα στο σκοτάδι, σκαλίζει ψάχνει.
Στο βάθος στα μάτια του είχε ακόμα ένα μάτι, που κοίταγε προς τα μέσα, εκεί καρφωμένο, ποτέ νυσταγμένο. …
The theme of enboxing, or the box within the box, as in the eye within the eye, the face within the face, the poem within the poem, is linked to the topic of internal existence and to the internal regions of the body. In Sinopoulos' poetry the body of the poetical subject is riddled with holes, from which the poet can be seen; it has cracks, which the poet has to block in order to keep out damp and cold; it has wounds, reaching out from the brain downwards and which run through the whole body; it is full of 'internal bitter waters' which keep on running after the body's death; it is split in two, with dirt in its mouth. The poet, in the same fashion as an anatomist, observes and describes his own self, going beyond the surface of the flesh, viewing the body within the body. Maybe that too is a way of detaching himself from external stimuli, which his aging flesh is incapable of living through, so he can concentrate on searching his memory. In Νυχτολόγιο, his last collection, he says:
Από αρκετόν καιρό έχω κουφαθεί (ή μισοκουφαθεί) από το δεξί μου αυτί […] Στο διάστημα της ημέρας δεν ξεχωρίζω τα λόγια της Μαρίας, όταν μου μιλάει από το άλλο δωμάτιο. Ωστόσο μου φαίνεται πως τώρα ακούω καλύτερα από πριν τις λεγόμενες «εσωτερικές» φωνές. Φαίνεται πως στο κορμί μου ανοίγονται καινούργιες διαρκώς / στοές ακοής. Έτσι το λέει κάπου η Ελένη Βακαλό.
While in his previous collections Sinopoulos employs the theme of bodily exhaustion and decay as a metaphor for his own relationship to a poem, in Νυχτολόγιο sickness and the inability of the body to come to grips with poetry, or even to enjoy it, corresponds to his actual physical condition. It is not just the usual struggle with words that fatigues the poet; rather it is his oncoming physical decay, his loss of youth and vigour, and which influence both his body and his soul. The senses, which used to be the conduits of impressing life and art on the poet's bodily flesh, are getting weaker, the same being true of memory, which was the lifegiving cause of his poetry and lay at the kernel of his writing:
… Βέβαια εσύ και σήμερα διαβάζεις, προσπαθείς να διαβάσεις, επιμένεις, βασανίζεσαι. Όμως καμιά δυνατή χαρά, καμιά ερεθιστική έκπληξη. Κανείς δε βγάζει με το μαχαίρι του φλούδες από το κορμί σου, όπως γινότανε παλιά, όταν ανακάλυπτες και τούτο και κείνο και το άλλο και ξενύχταγες και μεθυσμένος, μεταρσιωμένος και πήγαινες ως τα χαράματα.
Τώρα έχασες το ενδιαφέρον σου ακόμα και για την ποίηση, όπως χάνει κανείς – ας πούμε απ’ τα σαράντα κι ύστερα – σιγά σιγά τα μαλλιά του, τα δόντια του ή τη μνήμη του...
Since, for Sinopoulos, it is only rarely that poetry functions as a cure for “all evils thrown upon us” or as a “slumber of pain”, or as a redemptory, resurrectionary value, it can offer no relief to the poet, unlike the Cavafean Iasonas Cleandrou:
Το γήρασμα του σώματος και της μορφής μου / είναι πληγή από φρικτό μαχαίρι … Τα φάρμακά σου φέρε Τέχνη της Ποιήσεως, / που κάμνουνε – για λίγο – να μη νοιώθεται η πληγή.
Sinopoulos' bodily and self-referrential attitude towards poetry demands that the work age and decay along its creator for one more reason: poetry is identical to memory, with the latter fading away with the passage of time and the onset of age.
It has been already argued that the expression of the art of poesy by means of tropes is very common among poets of the first post war generation. In most instances this expression is concentrated on a pathogeny of poetry, in a charting of bodily symptoms and maladies, which are, in turn, brought about by the poet's inability to communicate with others by means of his poetic art, but also by his 'painful communion' with the events he describes. Sinopoulos' writing goes further in that words are inherent in themselves in bodily terms, expressing their own feelings and their own passions, often resisting his poetic will. This does not do away with the notion of the artisan poet, but rather serves to reinforce it, as it heralds a condition of anti-inspiration, of never ceasing conflict between creator and his expressive medium.