Interview with Iuli Tsakalou
Kostia Kontoleon, writer, translator, wife, grandmother, how do you manage and keep up with everything?
All these qualities interact with each other but at the same time each one has its own independence. The quality of being a writer is laborious and demanding, and is matched by the quality of being a translator, which requires similar and necessary work contracts. The status of wife is based on the companionship and common interests of the couple. Being a grandmother is a loving relationship but it does not require absolute devotion, at least in my case. Yes, I catch up on everything, because I prioritize each one.
“IMA IN VILLE D’AVRAY”
MOMENT EDITIONS
Translation accolades abound, do you feel vindicated for your effort? How redemptive are awards in human existence?
I get the justification mainly from the result of my work. It is a particularly demanding process that becomes a necessary experience along the way. Yes, I have won many accolades for my translation work which fills me with confidence, but for me any awards even the “state” I have won lose their luster in front of the reader’s/wife’s words of praise after reading the translated by me book
In your new book released with an original title “Ima in Ville d’Avray” under a new publishing roof, where did you get the inspiration from?
First of all, I should express my thanks to the favor of luck that my particular book was found in a publishing house that respects its authors and this resulted in the birth of a book that is a real jewel in every respect. Now, where I get my inspirations from is well known, because I have publicly confessed it many times.
I was born with a strange advantage-flaw, as oxymoronic as this sounds, that is, to notice everything unintentionally, to see things that others do not see, not because they are not visible to them, but because they do not notice them, as a result of which they become something to me like an experience, they fill the hard drive of my mind and stay there, but since every hard drive has to be emptied at some point, I finally choose to denature the images into words and these then suggestively into texts.
What would you say is the core of your story?
Timeless stories that illuminate interpersonal relationships as if with a photographic lens, traumas that have their roots in the past such as heartbreaks and childhood experiences, timeless stories that finally confirm their uniqueness.
What do you think is missing in this era compared to previous ones? There will be purification, salvation through the cleansing of innocence lost, sometimes even instantaneously.
Much is missing from our time, just as much has been irretrievably lost, along with it the innocence and trust that were once dominant in human relationships. Today they have been replaced by cunning and suspicion, jealous and vengeful feelings. Therefore, purification will only come if we return to the sincerity of our feelings and the belief that nevertheless it is hopeful that good intentions still continue to exist, if not in the majority of the world, but in a large numerical part of it, where it will certainly we can find them if we really want to look for them.
“Let’s look the mirror of memory”
Twenty short stories about lost innocence, memory management and nightmares of the past. Do you believe that in order for man to experience redemption, he must first bleed in order to bring about saving and final solutions?
Memory management is a purely personal process. I firmly believe that we should not be afraid to look in the mirror often. Essentially, the whole course of our life is hidden there, innocence but also grudge.
Kindness and enmity, there and our deeds good or bad. Of course, memory should also come with our inner mental strength, in order to be able to banish everything that hurt us and endure the saving redemption. This must be managed by the author in order to create a work. However, redemption, demanding and avaricious by nature, will come as a relief to us when it is sure that we have worked hard to deserve it and in return it will show us the path of purification.
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