At the age of 75, the writer and translator Jeni Mastoraki has passed away. member of the generation of the ’70s, which laid new foundations, orientations and identity in the poetry of the 20th century.
He first appeared in poetry in 1971 with poems under the general title “The synaxari of holy youth”. Four collections followed: “Tolls” (Kedros 1972), “To Soi” (Kedros 1978), “Stories for the Deep” (Kedros 1983) and “With a Wreath of Light” (Kedros 1989), as well as poems outside of books published in various publications.
For her poetic work reviews, studies and theses have been written in Greece and abroad, while her work, translated into the main Western languages, was taught in universities in Greece and abroad. Tasos Livaditis, Sonia Ilinskaya, Dimitris Maronitis have dealt with her work.
From the post-colonial era to today, at the same time, Jeni Mastoraki delivered much-discussed translations to the Greek-speaking audience. Her translation work as a whole, in both fiction and theater, includes, among others, works by Elias Canetti, JD Salinger (the iconic “The Catcher in the Rye”), Carson McCullers, Edgar Allan Poe, Harold Pinter, Sarah Kane (“I long”, “4.48 Psycho”), Brothers Grimm, Upton Sinclair, Lewis Carroll, Heinrich Böll, Heinrich von Kleist, Federico García Lorca (“Germa”), Miguel de Cervantes et al. In fact, in 1989, New York’s Columbia University awarded her the Thornton Niven Wilder Award. In 1992 he was also awarded by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) for the translation of the children’s book “The traveler of the dawn”. Her theatrical translations have been performed, among others, at the Odos Cyclades theater of Lefteris Vogiatzis and at the National Theatre.
And she, of course, has honored, with original texts, poets such as Dionysios Solomos, K. G. Karyotakis, Kostas Varnalis, Yiannis Ritsos, Manolis Anagnostakis, Aris Alexandrou, Yiannis Kontos, Rena Hatzidakis. In these texts, as has been noted in the rationale of the State Literature Awards committee that awarded her the 2020 Grand Prize for Letters for her overall contribution, “the inseparable relationship between writing and reading and its experiential involvement with language, history and literature”.
Jenny Mastoraki was born in Athens on February 21, 1949. As she has told “K”: “I was born at 14 Ioannou Metaxas, in Zografou. Tsitura station. Next to “Aigli”. I was born right there, at home, in February of ’49. My mom left the Geroulanos Clinic, about to give birth, and with the child – me – turned upside down, and went to give birth at home, she was Civil War, she wanted to be with her family, and she also had my eight-year-old brother. She was born by a wise midwife, who was called Stamatoula. I had met her once, when I was ten. She was small and wrinkled, very old, and I was afraid of her. At birth, I almost killed my mom, who was going for an Aquarius child, and from days and nights of fighting, she ended up being a Pisces (with all her critical planets in Aquarius). I walked out, half drowned, I was huge and black-black from bruising, while my brother (who had also been born in the same house, because on that day in 1941 the Germans entered Athens) was white and blond and pink . I have heard this story for years and years. How black I was. How I was listening. How they had almost forgotten me, in their anxiety for my mother. And later, when they teased me that they “took me from the Gypsies”, sometimes I would get angry and sometimes I would cry. Lies. I probably cried as a rule.”
He studied Byzantine and medieval literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and was quadrilingual: English, German, Spanish, Italian.
The committee of State Prizes for Literature, had judged that “Jeni Mastorakis, with her uninterrupted and qualitative contribution to Greek letters, managed to shape a unique course, which was based on her persistent and thorough dedication to the Greek (written and spoken) language, in highlighting fertile areas of poetic past and in its creative reconstruction, in literary knowledge and boldness and in underlining the vital importance of narratives (sociopolitical, familial, gendered, personal) in mapping memory, emotions and existence itself in its historical perspective. Using the resonance of romantic achievements, the bequest of post-war generations, the stigma of post-colonialism as a springboard, the poet and translator Jeni Mastoraki finally managed to capture the inner and complex adventure of man through time”.
Lina Mendoni: “The loss of Jenis Mastorakis deprives us of one of the greatest figures of our modern Letters”
“Through its long course, it emerged as a unique case of Greek Letters, which it honored with its uninterrupted and quality offer, without discounts. In her work she combined the uncompromising concern for language with the creative reconstruction of the past, the mapping of memory and the silent, but highly expressive assimilation of experience,” said the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni.
“The loss of Jenis Mastorakis deprives us of one of the greatest figures of our modern Letters. A representative of the Generation of 70, he leaves us a poetic work, which crossed borders and was published in many foreign languages. It stands out for its completely personal stamp, highlighting the inseparable relationship between writing and reading as well as the author’s long-term experiential involvement with language, history and literature.
Jenny Mastoraki was a top translator. It was confronted with classic and modern texts of world literature, from prose, poetry, theater, but also emblematic essays, from different languages. He offered us translations that are reference points, both for the works themselves and for the redefinition of the translation genre. The translation corpus of Jenis Mastorakis, which she compiled over decades, with dedication, persistent and painstaking work, stands out for its linguistic precision and its distinct aesthetic imprint.
Jeni Mastoraki, a rare person, a rare creator, with exemplary dedication to Art, never sought unnecessary and pointless publicity. However, she managed to enjoy the recognition of her work, as evidenced by her numerous awards, most prominently the award of the 2020 Grand Prize for Letters.
To her family and friends, I offer my most sincere condolences”, says the Minister of Culture.
#Condolences #Mendoni #loss #writer #Jeni #Mastorakis
