‘Some Wine for Remembrance’
Reconciliation is the underlying theme of Edmund Keeley’s latest novel, «Some Wine for Remembrance» (White Pine Press, 2001). During a brief visit to Athens en route to London, the author spoke to Kathimerini English Edition about the genesis of his book, translation, and his abiding concern for human rights. Reconstructing history Keeley has written extensively about Greece, publishing numerous works of criticism, poetry in translation and seven novels. His intimate association with the country began in boyhood: «I came to Greece in 1936 as an 8-year-old. My father was the American consul in Salonica. I became a little Greek, in a way, because I learned Greek as a child.» But in 1939, when the family went back to the USA on regular home leave, the outbreak of war prevented their return. «This book actually grew out of my interest in filling in parts of the Second World War that I missed. I came back in 1947 for the first time, during the Civil War, to do voluntary work. I had to relearn Greek because it had just disappeared over the eight years that I was gone. But I also missed the history of the country that all my childhood friends had been through and I had only heard about. Some of the books I’ve written have been an effort to reconstruct that history that I’ve missed.» His latest volume deals with a horrific incident that took place in Greece during the final stages of the Second World War. The past As the German army was about to retreat from Greece, someone killed a German soldier near a village outside Thessaloniki. In a ferocious reprisal, German soldiers and their Greek collaborators herded some 80 people, mainly the elderly, women and children, from the neighboring village of Hortiati into the local bakery, and burned them to death – apparently to save ammunition – then razed the village. For Keeley, this atrocity symbolized «what had been the vast destruction, the cruelty and the lack of comprehension on the part of the German army and others of what the human predicament is. My effort in writing this book was to try to capture the memories of several key characters who were involved in the period of the occupation.» Five people tell the story: a journalist, investigating whether an Austrian officer who later became a senior statesman was involved in the massacre, and four of the original protagonists at Hortiati – a member of the resistance, his wife, a German soldier who was her lover and one of his officers. When the Greek edition of the book was published, it raised a stir, owing to the putative identification of the Austrian officer called the Big O in the novel, with Kurt Waldheim. As it happens, he was posted in the vicinity, but seems to have been absent on the day of the incident. In any case, Keeley is not interested in settling scores: «The book is based on four people who were in the area at the time and their way of coping with the memory of it. The Big O’s way of coping with it is denial – so he’s the image of denial throughout the book. The others are at various stages of non-denial. In the end, the two journalists, one Austrian and one American, who have gone there to explore this experience, also have to learn how to cope with what they’ve discovered.» A novelist by inclination Though Keeley feels his true calling is fiction, many readers know him mainly through his translations of modern Greek poets. He is quick to point out that he was a late arrival in the field, preceded by many fine translators, and lucky to have translated superb poets, two of whom, Seferis and Elytis, later won Nobel prizes for literature. It began out of sheer necessity, during his postgraduate studies in Modern Greek at Oxford. He was doing a dissertation on Cavafy and Seferis and there weren’t enough translations of Seferis available. Later, while teaching creative writing at Princeton, he was asked to run a translation workshop there: «I love teaching translation, partly because you’re dealing with very good literature and various kinds of literature. And certain students whose ambition was to be professional translators kept convincing me it was important. And of course I was in love with the poetry of Cavafy and Seferis.» Eventually he pooled resources with Philip Sherrard, a senior translator who also wrote criticism of modern Greek poets. They became good friends, collaborating for many years. Stepping back Now Keeley thinks it’s time he stepped back: «The younger generation ought to be translating the younger generation. The major poets have already been translated and retranslated. The poets of my generation are all well established and there are plenty of translations, so it’s time to translate the newer poets and fiction. Fiction’s very strong now and it needs translators, but younger translators, who are also writing themselves in the mode of that particular literature. The rest of us can retire quietly into the background and read and encourage and keep mostly quiet.» Having written 32 books of one kind or another, Keeley wonders whether he hasn’t done enough. But his version of retiring into the background is busier than most full-time jobs. Currently co-editing a new anthology, he is also actively involved in PEN, the worldwide writers’ organization, and contemplating embarking on a new project connected with human rights issues. He is alarmed by aspects of the recent campaign against terrorism and by developments that occurred well before September 11: «Subtle changes concerning habeas corpus rights and protecting the rights of citizens and non-citizens. That’s something that interests me, because it goes back to my longstanding interest in human rights. That’s why I’m going to London. I’m a member of the PEN Foundation there and I’m going to try and help International Pen, which is doing major work fighting for civil rights and civil societies. That’s how we’re going to survive.»
