World Poetry Evening

The Hellenic-Indian Society for Culture & Development (ELINEPA) and the Athens Center for Indian and Indo-Hellenic Studies organized an online meeting on world poetry on Sunday, March 26, 2023 from 7:00 to 9.00 p.m.

Program

Evening’s Greeting
Observance of a minute’s silence (for the innocent)
While Hellas is mourning its youth, we dispel the curse reciting out along with our laureate poet Odysseas Elytis:

“Whenever evil strikes you, brothers,
whenever your mind gets blurry,
recall Dionysios Solomos
and recall Alexandros Papadiamantis.”
and we continue….
“recall Homer and Hesiod
recall Bhagavat Gita and Ramayana
recall the sacred scriptures of civilizations.”

So tonight we delved into the depths of the soul of humanity, the fountain of the blossoming of the spirit, the greatness of philosophy, the glory of poetry that offers us courage for life and for tomorrow.

Participants read poems of Hesiod, Aristotle, Rig Veda, Mahabharata, Puranas, Telugu epics, Sankaracarya, Incas, Scandinavian saga and Herman Hesse. The languages heard were ancient and modern Greek, Sanskrit, Telugu, Quechua, Swedish and German.

The program was enriched with Indian songs by: Kostas Kalaitzis and chanting of sanskrit mantras by Voula Bollou.

Maria and Notis were the poetry evening’s hosts.