Sophia Kolotouros was born in Athens in 1973. She studied at the Medical School of the University of Crete. She received her degree in 1998 and then specialized for five years in cytology at the Universities of Heraklion, Crete and Agios Savvas, Athens. Recently she has been involved with translations and editing of medical books (after attending relevant seminars) and writing books (poetry and poetry). She attended courses at the Hellenic Open University for one year, in the field of Greek culture, while she is currently studying at the graduate program Creative Writing of the same university. She has been an activist on hearing problems, and in particular on deafness, from which he also suffers. She has completely lost her hearing, but not her ability to speak. She communicates by reading the lips of the interlocutors and responds verbally, while not knowing the sign language.
She often visits schools and university institutions and talks with students and on issues related to hearing problems and especially post-lingual deafness. In March 2011 she set up a Facebook discussion group on hearing impacts under the name KOUFOCHORIO, (village of the deaf) which today has more than 1600 members and has developed many activities to support deafness.
In March 2015 she was one of the founding members of the Association: “Support Movement for the Accessibility of Deafness and Hearing Loss with Oral Speech”, in which an association holds the position of Chairman of the Board.
In December 2017 her poetry book The Third Generation was honored with the National Poetry Prize of Greece.
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Poems below from:
Neo-Hellene Poets – An Anthology of |
Our other half
doesn’t exist.
People exist.
Our circles meet
they define subtotals, common places
leaving other details alone
unprotected
unmatched.
I used the language
of Geometry, so you could understand.
I transformed my words into shapes
specific circles, defined
beautifully intersected
which you destroyed.
Now my words are soap-bubbles
that fly in the air.
They fly, laugh
make fun of me
with beautiful iridescent colors
© English translation: Manolis Aligizakis
SPIDER-WOMAN
I travelled in enclosed hearts
strange rough bodies
male bodies with erected phalluses
male bodies unexplored continents
I traveled in these bodies
I enjoyed their flowing juices
I wondered if they knew
how to touch a woman
if they wanted to conquer a woman.
Like we conquer them touching
edges of their chord-emotions entering,
piercing through, suckling, and turning them dry
we drip our own poison.
We conquer our victims.
Who has seen us as victims?
Who conquered us?
In the war of genders they see us as trophies.
They place their flags in our bodies
and leave in a delirious state.
The new century returns to Matriarchy
and I already set my web
for unsuspecting males
© English translation: Manolis Aligizakis
ARIADNE
They gave us the yarn
they said we could walk
out of our deadlock.
We wrapped the thread
around us
carefully
we stayed motionless
in the same position
in the heart of labyrinth
hypnotized
by the blue color of the TV
a blue lamb sits
in my balcony
that interrogates me every night
in the silent peacefulness
I have nothing
to confess
© English translation: Manolis Aligizakis
UNPREDICTABLE
The afternoon passes, the light fades
shadows get shorter
forecasting the night
unpredictable people become predictable
in the logic of escape
centrifuge power holds them together accurately
they say they’ll leave, they always leave
revolving around a center
of their own persistence
predictable people walk on a straight line
sometimes we coerce them, tease them
put obstacles in front of them to see
if they continue on the same unaltered line.
Magnetized they always stand up and carry on
to their personal moral North.
I don’t move neither on a straight line nor in centrifuge.
I foresee that night will come and I admire
the Northern Lights
as I wait for a collision
© English translation: Manolis Aligizakis
LAST CONCUBINE
Lover
I stage your play
I transform myself
object of desire and lust
I connive roles and sets
I become the subject
Woman
I put together the house
of a family
I transform myself
means of reproduction
I discover
a mother’s instinct
I give life
become a mother
Priestess
I build temples
devising new religions
object of reverence
I make use
of metaphysics
and religious instinct
I become Authority
The roles
were divided long ago
you don’t give me other choices
while you refuge to see me
as shape of waves that always changes
I only show you
one of my faces
I’m the last concubine
and secretly I escape
to the full Moon
© English translation: Manolis Aligizakis
Published with the permission of Sophia Kolotouros & Manolis Aligizakis