Papadiamantis

Every year in early January the municipality organizes an evening in honour of my island's most famous citizen, the novelist Alexandros Papadiamantis

2011 was a very special year to commemorate because it was 100 years since his passing away. Because of that many events were organized throughout the year. Last night we were presented with a review of those events.

For the second part of the evening some of his short stories were recited. First in Greek and then in some of the foreign languages that his books have been translated in. English, German, Georgian, Albanian, French, Russian, Italian and I had the honour of reading out in Dutch.

At first I was a bit worried that it would be boring for the audience to listen to languages they wouldn't understand but the writing of Papadiamantis is so strong and alive that even though you don't understand a word of what is being said in the foreign language, you can still feel the emotions that his writings evoke. And that is just magical!