THE MISSING WORDS

Only one of Sappho's poem (630 BC, Lesbos) survived complete to our days. The rest of her writings reached us as fragments. Some of them were found in shattered papyrus in which many of the words are unreadable. That's what we have from her, isolated words in old ripped fabrics and quotes in others ancient poets' words. Anne Carson decided to translate all the fragments that had at least one legible word. She used brackets to indicate each time the damaged papyrus does not allow a word or verse to be read. Thus, the result is a music different from that of the Greek poet's lyric: is a music of silences, of suspended moments and thick atmospheres of mysterious.
Laura Wittner translate Anne Carson's translations from English, completing a chain of translations and voices with no guidance other than those words and those gaps. Who is Safo talking to? In her poems there are no personal articles or possessive pronouns. Thus, there is something to be discovered. Something of the mystery that unites things and people in time.
In this case, there is the translation of the translation, writers sharing a quest for sense and emotion, writers saying out loud what is written in the remains, writers making the words alive again. In the performance, Greek film director Konstantina Kotzamani reads in Greek, writer and ancient language teacher and translator Anne Carson reads in english and writer and theater maker Agustina Muñoz reads in Spanish in a ritual of time and language.

INFO

Project and direction: Agustina Muñoz
Ally in thought and enthusiasm: Lionel Braverman
with Anne Carson, Konstantina Kotzamani and Agustina Muñoz.
Translation from English into Spanish: Laura Wittner.
Sound: Guillermina Etkin
Lights: Matías Sendón
Pictures: Bob Lightowler