A group of students of the Model High School of Mytilene of the University of the Aegean had the pleasure and the honor of meeting the well-known translator of European literature, Mr. Evryviadis Sofos. The meeting took place on Monday, March 27, 2023 in the school Conference Hall, in the context of the “Day of European Authors“. It should be noted that our school also participates in the programme, “Ambassador Schools of the European Parliament”.
During the meeting, some students of our school, together with Mr. Sofos, read and commented on a short story written by the Catalan author, Kim Monzo . The title of the story is “The little girl… with other matches” ( https://www.tovima.gr/print/books- ideas/to-koritsaki-lfme-alla-spirta) and it is a variation of the well-known fairy tale: “The Match Girl”, by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
Paraskevi Kougouliou, a student of the 1st Grade, said about the aforementioned fairy tale: “Catalan author Kim Monzo writes through the eyes of the little protagonist, a dying girl, as if she were the heroine of Andersen’s widely read story.
While reading it, I wondered whether we have ever thought that every time we read a story again, the heroes are the same and do the same things. Perhaps, in fact, it is this tragic repetition that prompts us to reread the story even though we know how it will develop. On the other hand, the heroes, those who play their own unchanging role, how do they feel? In this particular short story, the little heroine curses the author for the bad ending he has given her, knows what will happen, what she will do, what others will do about it and she constantly pretends.
Maybe it is like that in life: everything becomes a habit, but change is interesting though scary. The heroine tries to change her ending, but she cannot. The pen of the author has condemned her to live in repetition, to survive only to play the same unchanging role in the story. This is a conviction without a charge. However this sentence leads to our understanding the tragedy of repetition, without pushing ourselves into its misery.”
Gerasimos Dinos, who is also a student of the 1st Grade, said the following: “The two things that caught my interest the most are the fact that the little girl has to experience her death many times and that she has lived the same life a hundred times over. Although it has become clear that she relives the same events over and over again, a hundred times and more seems an outrageous number. It shows how much she has suffered.
I believe that through this short story it becomes clear that the original fairy tale: “The Girl with the Matches” has not succeeded in one of its main purposes: Readers read the book again and again every year and thus, the little girl also relives the martyred life without doing anything more. Parents read it to themselves or to their children and then put it aside just to do it again.
Perhaps, one of the author’s goals was to raise awareness and mobilize people, but it seems that although most people feel moved by the story, no one does anything to prevent it from happening again. Hence the anger of the girl in the short story, since every year nothing changes. So how can they change, if no one makes an effort to change?”
Kim Monzo was born in Barcelona in 1952. He appeared on the literary scene in 1976, particularly cultivating the short form in collections of short stories and novels -as well as collections of essays and vignettes-, and forming a special literary universe characterized by eroticism, humor, a detailed anatomy of characters and a scathing depiction of reality.
With his books, which have won numerous awards and have been translated into many languages, Monzo overturned the stereotypes of “regional” or “minor” literature, as he has secured a place among the great European writers of the time. He lives in Barcelona and is a regular contributor to the newspaper La Vanguardia.
Euryviadis Sofos was born and raised in Mytilene. He studied translation and foreign languages at the European Educational Association (EEO) in Athens and then Spanish Literature at the University of Granada. He did a Master’s Degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. From 2004 until today, he works as a lecturer of Spanish at the Department of Education in the University of Athens and as a translator of Spanish and Catalan literature.
As a lecturer of Spanish Language and Culture, he has collaborated with the Hellenic Open University, the Economics Department of Athens University and the National Centre for Public Administration and Self-Government. As a translator, he is a member of the State Awards Committee from 2020 until today. He worked for two years in Brussels, Belgium, combining translation and teaching activities in the position of administrative officer at the non-profit F9 language school in Brussels. His working languages are Catalan, Spanish, English, French and Italian.
