Natalie Katsou was born in Athens in 1982. She studied Law and Theatre Studies in the University of Athens and Acting in “Delos Drama School”, as well as foreign languages and piano.
In 2006 she founded the Theatre Group “En Spoudi” and had her début as a playwright and a director in the Experimental Scene of the National Theatre of Greece. She continued working with her group until 2009, on her own play “Elisabeth, a spirit on fire” and on the poetic monologues by Angeliki Sigourou on the performance “the play will be non-stop”. She has also worked as an Assistant Director with George Kimoulis and Stathis Livathinos.
On November 2008 her first collection of poems “Magodos” was published by Kastaniotis Publ. and was nominated for the “Reading Literature Prize 2009”. Her poems have been published in various literary magazines in Greece: “Poetry”, “poetica”, “Diki”, “dekata” and the e-zines “e-poema” and “poeticanet.gr”. Her last play “flying asparagus”, recently translated in English, will be on stage soon, and her translation on Sylvia Plath / Sarah Kane is under publ. On September 2010 she came in London for her Theatre Directing MA Course in East15 and come what may.
• the chasm / distance between
the setting sun
and snowy meanings
I name “mouth about to speak”
• a long corridor
leads to the start of wandering
• a child is gathering acorn
strewn on the ground, I say
“the strangers have forgotten me tonight”
• on Sundays there is no one
except me
(then I remember that I resemble them)
• “yellow shirt pegged
on a clothesline”
a fat woman hung me to dry
• time slows down
the fewer colours you see
(on white stops black)
• the wind is blowing
drops form in the air
“dangling, frozen drops”
• smaller the frame
more cobalt blue
• I continue that the earth
shall not dry on my heels
• not a word beyond the painter’s paintbrush
neither “I know” nor “I want”
anything may be happening outside
• winter may eventually come to an end
• I doubt it
• houses, streets, cars
no, only yellow “trees”
• the guards are depressed
the guards are asleep
• I am not in a hurry;
if I leave the hall of paintings
I’ll still be a visitor
• do figures on paintings
observe us?
• I would like to be “woman lying down”
or “nude”, pencil on paper;
I would be something – specific
• the exhibition will last until the spring;
wandering till its end
Natalie Katsou
© translation by Yannis Goumas
Clippings
I
instantaneous white
again
between one night and another
– as a crack in the French window
will allow
and the opening of eyesight
II
unveil the only eyelid
my clam
that the after-sleep-day
shall melt
inside you
never mind if some lecithin
of the sort you suckled
spills scalding on the floor
there’ll always be someone
to chisel it
before it petrifies
III
(every silence explodes one day)
IV
There is no sky
and what we call stars
are nothing but teeth;
they sprang out of the mouths
of whomever dared
speak;
they were embedded in time
Natalie Katsou
© translation by Yannis Goumas
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Published with the permission of Natalie Katsou