CHINESE NOTEBOOK

The Chinese Notebook also in chinese

The Chinese Notebook by Demosthenes Agrafiotis (Erato Publications 1988) after its translation and publication in English (Chinese Notebook, Ugly Duckling Presse 2010, translation by John Sakkis and Angelos Sakkis) and in French (Cahier Chinois, Les Editions [0] 2008, translation by Michele Valley), is now being issued by Vakxikon.gr Publications in a bi-lingual edition in Chinese and English as an e-book. So the title that came about from the conventional Chinese notebook (black and red) where the poems of this book were first written down, finally meets, even if partially, its cultural origin.
In this book the poetics of the alphabet interfaces with the poetics of the ideogram, and the search for ways of living is articulated along with its relation to the prevailing models of globalisation, the particular interlinking of the technologies of (mis)communication with all expressions of everyday life and the investigation of the cultural trajectory of technologically advanced societies. Finally, these poems also trace the formation and dissolution of interpersonal relations in a contemporary world, which is oriented toward a more and more uncertain future.
The translation to Chinese was made by Anne Hua with Yuan Zhang overseeing the final editing. The English translation is the one by J. Sakkis and A. Sakkis. The china-ink drawings are made by the author.