The notion of the other stretches over a very wide field, over which disciplines as disparate as sociology, psychoanalysis, and philosopohy (ethics, metaphysics, ontology) engage in dialogue. In order to define the boundaries of otherness, we have to distinguish between certain categories which come about from a broader study of what the other is and which take into account the vague distinguishing lines between notions:
The natural or social other: the neighbour, the person we become responsible for, but also the stranger.
The metaphysical or absolute other: the absolute mystery that we are incapable of comprehending, death and time.
The psychological other: the other self, or I as another.
The same and the other: fall and elevation, being tied to the human condition and the process towards transcending the self, towards the absolute.
In Sachtouris' poetry, the topic of otherness follows a path that remains set, after a certain point, and does not diverge from the way by which the author lives through his relationship with reality and with his art, both within and outside reality. Sachtouris has no interest in overthrowing the basics of his own personal myths, but this thematic constancy should not imply that the poet remains unevolved.
In the poetics of Sachtouris the stance of the creator towards the world at large but also towards his own self is never dogmatic or one-sided. The poet has never ceased to be perplexed about things, nor has he ceased shuttling to and fro between this world and the other, between living and dead, past and present, acceptance and questioning of poetry, between horror and potential, monsters and saints and, finally, between him and himself.
Our approach is concentrated on certain aspects of the theme of otherness that is predominant in Sachtouris' poetry.
The poet and the others. Hostile reality and the social milieu. Holding on to poetical identity.
The split of the poetical ego. The other self and I as another.
The poet between present and past. Elective affinities.
The moment of poetic inspiration as vindication and liberation of the poetic voice. Poetry as escape from reality.
The poet being bound to his duty. His acqaintance with it.
The scars of the German Occupation and the ensuing Civil War, the continuous presence of death and the attendant social decay, brought about a sense of rottenness which Sachtouris depicts with nightmarish images: monsters and beasts walking among humans, birds showing their teeth while other birds fly away in fear, in a red, white and black background, dead and ghosts, fever, snow covering everything. The poet is confronted by a hostile everyday life, has to live through total solitude and comes face to face with death. But he keeps insisting on being a poet.
ΚΑΤΙ ΕΠΙΚΙΝΔΥΝΑ ΚΟΜΜΑΤΙΑ
Κάτι επικίνδυνα κομμάτια
χάος
είν’ η ψυχή μου
που έκοψε με τα δόντια του
ο Θεός
άλλοι τα τριγυρίζουν πάνω σε σανίδια
τα δείχνουν
τα πουλάνε
τ’ αγοράζουν
εγώ δεν τα πουλώ
οι άνθρωποι
τα κοιτάζουν
με ρωτάνε
άλλοι γελάνε
άλλοι προσπερνάνε
εγώ δεν τα πουλώ
The insistence on retaining his poetical identity at the risk of himself becoming a social other is a means of defence of his moral and spiritual being for the poet. Even in those instances where the poetical subject is compelled to mutilate its own self and to the chopping of its ego and it physical presence, because its human nature cannot bear its poetical identity, ultimately it becomes aware of the vanity of its actions and accepts the distinctive nature of the artist.
It is not just social alienation that leads the poetical subject to reclusiveness and to the feelings of defamiliarization and estrangement towards all, even towards its own self. Poetry itself leads the poet outside himself (berserk), making him not only to appear to others as a strange creature, an otherwordly monster, but also to feel like one himself, much like the monsters he describes in his verse provoke 'mental uncertainty' in people. Poetry for Sachtouris is a tough, tyrannous proposition, a moment of personal torture and distraction, sickness and redemption in one.
ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΙ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΙΗΤΗ
Έκοψα το κεφάλι μου
τό ’βαλα σ’ ένα πιάτο
και το πήγα στο γιατρό μου
─ Δεν έχει τίποτε, μου είπε,
είναι απλώς πυρακτωμένο
ρίξε το μέσα στο ποτάμι και θα ιδούμε
τό ’ριξα στο ποτάμι μαζί με τους βατράχους
τότε είναι που χάλασε τον κόσμο
άρχισε κάτι παράξενα τραγούδια
να τρίζει φοβερά και να ουρλιάζει
το πήρα και το φόρεσα πάλι στο λαιμό μου
γύριζα έξαλλος τους δρόμους
με πράσινο εξαγωνομετρικό κεφάλι ποιητή
The theme of 'I as another' is predominant throughout Sachtouris' poetry. The incessant threat of death, his relationship with poetry, solitude and the absence of love, the cleavage between here and there, they all push the poetical subject to a series of chain reactions, which can be summarised as follows:
1. questioning of his identity as a poet:
Δεν έχω γράψει ποιήματα / δεν έχω γράψει ποιήματα / μόνο σταυρούς / σε μνήματα καρφώνω (Ο ΣΤΡΑΤΙΩΤΗΣ ΠΟΙΗΤΗΣ, Ποιήματα, σ. 134)
2. questioning of his own existence:
ποτέ μου / ποτέ μου / δεν είχα γεννηθεί (Η ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΕΝΟΣ ΠΑΙΔΙΟΎ, Ποιήματα, σ.155)
Το καφενείο που πίνω τον καφέ μου / είναι άδειο / μόνο εγώ υπάρχω / έτσι το καφενείο είναι τελείως άδειο / γιατί ούτε εγώ υπάρχω. (Η ΜΙΚΡΗ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ, Εκτοπλάσματα, σ.20)
3. departure from the ego and observation of the self from a distance:
Καθόμουνα στο καφενείο και κοίταζα / από τη βιτρίνα /…/ ήτανε όλα τόσο άσχημα, φριχτά / που άρχισα να γελάω / να γελάω / να γελάω // είδα και τον εαυτό μου να περνάει / έξω από τη βιτρίνα // ήταν απέραντα θλιμμένος και σκεφτικός» (ΤΟ ΚΑΦΕΝΕΙΟ, Ποιήματα, σ.254)
4. Setting up the death of the self:
Άραγε ο πνιγμένος / με το ριγέ άσπρο κοστούμι στη γωνία / να είμαι εγώ; /…/ άπλωσα την καρδιά μου πάνω στο τραπέζι / την έκοψα στα δύο μ’ ένα ψωμομάχαιρο // ύστερα ξάπλωσα λουλούδια μέσα στην μπανιέρα // ύστερα έπεσα να κοιμηθώ» (Ο ΠΝΙΓΜΕΝΟΣ, Ποιήματα, σ.244)
5. Splitting of the self into more than one subjects:
Το φάντασμά μου τώρα αναζητώ // κλεμμένο απ’ το σκελετό μου /…/ αυτό το φάντασμα εγώ / κλεμμένο απ’ το δικό μου σκελετό / αναζητώ /…/ δίχως το γέλιο / με το γέλιο / τελειωμένο / με τη φωνή μου που πάει τώρα να χαθεί / εγώ το φάντασμά μου εγώ … (Η ΚΛΟΠΗ ΤΟΥ ΦΑΝΤΑΣΜΑΤΟΣ, Ποιήματα, σ.214)
It is worth noting that in most of the poems which stress the theme of the 'other self' the poet speaks in the first person, thereby hinting at a conscious attempt at detachment from self, for purposes of self-observation but also in order to transcend what merely seems to be the reality. We have a very scant knowledge of Sachtouris Biographical note, but we do know of his insistence on leading a solitary, totally ascetic, existence. This, by itself, helps explain, from a psychoanalytic standpoint, the process of searching for the ego or dividing it as a by-product of the lack of points of reference in his alienated social environment.
Still, Sacthouris' poetical subject does select certain friendships and 'companionships', a series of elective affinities that make up a list of absent creators. Within the confined space of his room he meets and talks with dead authors such as Embeirikos, Carousos, Dylan Thomas and Kafka. For him they are poet heroes not just because of their originality, but also because of their non-conforming lifestyles and 'triumphal' death
Στις δώδεκα και μισή / τη νύχτα / την ίδια ώρα και συγχρόνως / φάνηκε στο μεγάλο καθρέφτη και στο παράθυρό μου / ο Ντύλαν Τόμας μ’ ένα αναμμένο κόκκινο κερί / στο στόμα // νεκρός βέβαια / κι άγιος / και τρελός / όπως το έχω ξαναπεί …
The same processes aportion to this singular reality people such as saints, both male and female, martyrs and madmen, who coexist with the dead poets while also habituating among the living. Thus, whatever can be termed unfamiliar or otherness, like the dead person returning as a ghost, the madman or even the suicide, in Sachtouris poetical universe is presented as a refuge, something familiar or beloved, maybe even as something similar to the poet. The poetic subject too often goes walkabout in both the land of living and in that of the dead. Distance between real and imaginary is done away with. The poet meets these persons in a neutral zone, creating a second reality, another present, which he cohabits alongside the dead, who are thereby transformed into dead who live, or in other words, zombies or undead.
In the poem which follows, and which is dedicated to the memory of the suicide Giorgos Makris, 'the wonderfully dead', the poet tallies his account:
ΕΖΗΣΑ ΚΟΝΤΑ
μνήμη Γιώργου Μακρή
Έζησα κοντά στους ζωντανούς ανθρώπους
κι αγάπησα τους ζωντανούς ανθρώπους
όμως η καρδιά μου ήταν πιο κοντά
στους άγριους αρρώστους με τα φτερά
στους μεγάλους απεριόριστους τρελούς
κι ακόμα στους θαυμάσια πεθαμένους
In Sachtouris' works, poetical creation is intricately linked to the moment of inspiration, for him a moment of transcendence of human limits and of escape from reality. His vertical view of the world and the archetypal contrast between up and down are fundamental building blocks for his poetics. In the poem that follows the author detaches himself from the human condition and from earthly matters by means of the wheel, which can be both a machine and an instrument of torture, and is elevated far above the nightmarish and threatening images of post war everyday life, but always in danger of falling back to the earth and breaking his bones. The moment of inspiration coincides with the exit from the self and is simultaneously both a form of torture, implying danger, and liberation.
ΤΟ ΑΝΕΒΑΣΜΑ
Στον Kυριάκο Pόκο
Στριφογυρίζει ο ποιητής επάνω στον τροχό του
στριφογυρίζει ο ποιητής δαιμονισμένα
ένα κεφάλι αλόγου σπασμένο μέσ' στα πόδια του
μια γυναίκα ανοίγει τ' άσπρο στόμα να δαγκάσει
φίδια φαρμακερά τον τριγυρίζουν
χάμω κυλάνε κέρματα
καύκαλα τσακισμένα ριγμένα μέσ' στη λάσπη του
και στρογγυλά χαλύβδινα λουλούδια να σφυρίζουν
καθώς στριφογυρνάει ο ποιητής
αρχίζει ν' ανεβαίνει
όπως γυρίζει φρενιασμένα
κι όπως γυρίζει φρενικά
αρχίζει ν' ανεβαίνει
το ένα του χέρι είναι σβηστό
στο άλλο να κρατάει ένα αναμμένο κάρβουνο
Despite these images of the creator being transformed at the moment of inspiration into a demonic, furious figure which revolves, lifts off the ground and casts away gloomy earthly bounds, there are a few instances in Sachtouris' works in which the poet considers it apposite to chart the brighter side of reality, that which represents beauty, light and love; in one word, life itself. In those instances poetry is not seen as escapism or as a state of madness and the word poet is spelled with a capital P. The creator addresses himself without splitting himself into parts or having to observe his own self. He lets go, if only fleetingly, of the world of the living dead, of the 'beuatifully dead' and of ghosts, as he lets go too of the sense of otherness and of inverse reality so he can turn to an other which is not alien or provoking fear, taking upon himself the duty to save it from extinction, by means of poetry.
ΟΙ ΑΠΟΜΕΙΝΑΝΤΕΣ
Όμως υπάρχουν ακόμα
λίγοι άνθρωποι
που δεν είναι κόλαση
η ζωή τους
υπάρχει το μικρό πουλί ο κιτρινολαίμης
η Fräulein Ramser
και πάντοτε του ήλιου οι απομείναντες
οι ερωτευμένοι με ήλιο ή με φεγγάρι
ψάξε καλά
βρες τους, Ποιητή!
κατάγραψέ τους προσεχτικά
γιατί όσο παν και λιγοστεύουν
λιγοστεύουν
The poet is a collector of rare species, whether these be artistic personalities, or the neighbour who addresses life in a 'poetic', meaning a creative, manner. In the final instance, the charting of an everyday existence which is about to become to extinct
Όμως υπάρχουν ακόμα / λίγοι άνθρωποι…,
his acceptance of his role as a poet hinders the questioning of the self and the attendant identity crisis due to lack of points of reference. The poetic ego becomes extroverted and becomes familiarised with its social role. To return to the kinds of otherness, as we defined them in the beginning of this essay, in those rare instances where the natural or social other do not cause fear or disgust, the metaphysical and psychological other cease to define poetic function and the poet 'returns', if only for a brief while, to the reality of the living.