Sophia Yannatou - Hathena
(This text was written for the radio series “Voices from the Invisible Cities”/ERA, 1991. It was later published in the humorous collection of short stories written by Sofia Yannatou with the title: “Stories to be thrown away” (“Istories yia petama”, 2002)
(Transl. note: “Harthena” as a conjured up name alludes to the Greek verb ‘hatheka’ = I’m lost. An English translation might be Lostathena or even, maybe Los Athens!)
Los Athens
Los Athens is one of the invisible cities that Kalvino omitted to mention, probably because even he was not able to see it. Its magical view disappears in a misty cloud like in fairytales. Looking at it from afar, one may see only a steamy vision, an apparition or a mirage ready to vanish. Symbol of this evaporating city is the Atmopolis – a monument whose history gets lost back in time, in centuries immemorial.
The Atmopolis shines faintly somewhere in the middle of traffic and is not easily visible unless one visits it. This, usually, only tourists do. The citizens of Los Athens don’t waste their time in things already known to them. They prefer to waste it more enjoyably. Because life in this magical city is a constant amusement; it’s a daily game of carelessness, where everybody plays around searching for anything, as if in ‘the lost treasure hunting’ game. Anything can be hidden or lost, having disappeared or dematerialized, especially when exactly you need it. Like taxis, for instance. Which disappear at the same time when buses are lost too. At those moments, the central roads get crowded by good-humored people full of laughter, carrying binoculars, magnifying glasses and other helpful instruments, scanning the horizon in search of transport means to take them home after work. Some few, the most daring ones, carry telescopes and observe the sky (whenever the sky is not similarly lost as well) looking for a helicopter or a spaceship – or, maybe, looking for their lost dreams: the dreams they had earlier in the office about going home early today. Nevertheless, nobody loses his/her high spirits; this is the only thing never lost in the playful city.
A smile is marked on all faces, at all times, as a characteristic of the inhabitants. Smiling car-drivers go driving around the city, round and round, playing the game ‘where-is-where-is-the-ring’, searching for streets towards their destination without crossing the magic ringlet. The Magic Ringlet is an invisible zone of gases, moving in a circular space-like orbit around the even-more-evaporated nucleus of the city-center; and if a player crosses the line, he’s lost. He disappears, spirited off within minutes by the traffic police. Therefore, everybody smiles and drives carefully, so that not to lose points from their driving license, until they reach the final goal of the course. Which is: to find the lost place for parking. If a parking space is invisible for hours, drivers continue to drive around until they turn into exhaust fumes themselves.
Another popular game contributing to Los Athens’ carelessness is the lost morning at a public service office. Smiling clerks, lost behind piles of papers, are searching for files lost in folders and folders lost in shelves. Smiling citizens are searching for their rights; and off they are sent to other offices with many more clerks and many more papers, wherein all of them can search together as a team, the game thus becoming thrilling. After the whole morning is lost, all of them go home satisfied.
Homes do not get lost. Houses are quite visible in the invisible city and they constantly multiply. What disappears, magically, is the green. The green evaporates gradually in the periphery of Los Athens, turning into thin air and smoke. After the smoke has drifted away, a brownish tinge appears like charcoal. The phenomenon of colors’ alteration is caused by invisible doers who turn into thin air themselves, along with the trees. However, all these events are part of the game. The citizens will enjoy their loss of colors, as they know that each particular color does never disappear completely. If, for instance, a green tree is lost, there may spring out instead a green traffic light. Or, maybe, a green horse.
What’s more, the whole spectrum of colors does never disappear from view simultaneously – except in rare moments, when the city loses its light. This may happen in special occasions when all neighborhoods sink in darkness, everybody then becoming invisible. This terrific game takes place whenever the Light Company employees start searching for their rights, for their fights, for their wages, or generally for their own selves. Within the electrified atmosphere, citizens move about blind in the dark, playing ‘hide and seek’ and having much fun until dawn. Because, you see, night entertainment is their best. At night, everybody goes out searching frantically, speaking up in SynCrash * Avenue, along the coast road of Talliron *, at Clappamaki * and in all clubbing suburbs, seeking for tables lost behind locked doors, doormen, waiters and flying trays. The harder to find a table, the more fun they have – until they lose their sleep, their money, or whatever else does none need to lose in order to have a great time. Finally, the whole night is lost, giving its place to the daylight, again from the start: with the games and vapors, the exhaust gas ringlet, the circles of lost drivers, the faded out Atmopolis and the fading out citizens celebrating their losses after the faded away Olympic games.
That’s all for today from us, with a smile; from a radio program lost somewhere among thousands of radio programs from Los Athens. If you did find us and listened to us, have a good morning.
(1) SynCrash Avenue for Syngrou; Talliron for Faliron and Clappamaki for Calamaki.« Kein Ort. Nirgends - der Nachlass von Christa Wolf | Svetlana Dicheva »