Now In English! "The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding"

Title: The Rehearsal of Misunderstandings: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets

Original Authors: Rhea Galanaki, Jenny Mastoraki, Maria Laina.

Translator: Karen Van Dyck

On April 27, 1967, a group of colonels in Greece took control of the government and installed a dictatorship that would last until 1974. During this period free expression was harshly surpressed. That did not, however, stop writers and artists from speaking out and practising their craft. And this collection of Greek poetry edited and translated by Karen Van Dyck's showcases women's poetry during the Junta.


First we'll get the technical stuff out of the way: aside from the introduction, there are no notes on the poems. However, this edition is bilingual, which is ideal for those who know Greek or are interested in learning it. Although I know only basic Greek, I did enjoy being able read aloud the Greek text and get a feel for the original. But you don't need to know Greek to appreciate the poetry.

The English translation has a great rhythm. The translator, Van Dyck, is a professor at Columbia University and writes on modern Greek literature, among other topics. She's written and translated various other works, including The Scattered Papers of Penelope: New and Selected Poems. What is amazing to me was her ability to give life to each poem, especially as there are three distinct different writers.

Rhea Galanaki, for example, writes The Cake in a prose-poetry format, with short stopping sentences that seem to give the feel of hesitation. There is something held back. And the imagery ranges from the symbolic to the graphic. Jenny Mastoraki's Tales of the Deep, on the other hand, gives the reader a return to stanzas. Despite this, the poems vary much more in length and style. I do consider Mastoraki to be the bridge between Rhea and Maria Laina's work, which in comparison is far shorter, lighter, and reads more philosophical due to the amount of abstract concepts.

"You must fear their bottomless scriptures that echo with footsteps -

of sentrymen leaning over the wooden bridge and in the distance fires, the slaughtered parish or cries from shipwrecks and explosions, abducted women, and the looting of a marketplace ablaze at noon, and mountains scored, an ancient scaffold ready to collapse, or late at night, deep in some gully, the whimper of a beast which ound itself, all of a sudden, with two heads -

With battle cries at the hour of attack, howls and curses, with exorcisms and incantations, hexes and charms. 

I say beware the suicides who wrote." - Jenny Mastoraki, Tales from the Deep p. 119

The mark of the military dictatorship remains on the pages of this volume of poetry. The read can be difficult, but it can also be light, almost humorous. This volume almost reminds me of poetical version of Greek cinema's "weird phase". I can't help thinking of an atmosphere similar to Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth.

These voices are some of the few Greek women that have made it into English translation, and I would be amiss to skip over it. Most books I love, I love for the weaving of words or the characters. This collection, in particular, I love because of the thoughts, and the unique voices of the authors, and even the images, not matter how absurd or grotesque they may at times become.

Looking for another book? Check out Memory In The Flesh by Ahlam Mosteghanemi! Otherwise why not buy Rehearsal of Misunderstanding on Amazon?