John Yiannouleas: You can go your own way

John Yiannouleas

You can go your own way

N A WEDNESDAY morning, Mr Paul, having served his time as a good husband and neighbour, thought that there was nothing else left for him to do but to leave and go as far as he could.

       He opened the door of his house, walked across the tiles on the patio, went through the gate—yet this time, with a sure-footed step, walked downhill on Phoenix Avenue and passed the luminous signs and absent-minded pensioners.

       He carried on walking until the early evening and then took the first bus headed for the outskirts of town—exactly the opposite direction from his house.

       Eleven months later, when he unexpectedly looked upon Phoenix Avenue, he continued without speaking, opened the door, hung his coat on the wooden coat hanger and understood that the other end of the world was in his house.

Source: First published.

John Yiannouleas (1962). He studied Film Direction and has directed the films: The Other Side (1985), an interview of the heretical revolutionary Agis Stinas, mentor of Cornelius Castoriadis and Good morning Managua, (1987) a travel documentary about Nicaragua of the Sandinistas. Books of his are: In 45 Square Metres (short plays, 1997) and Unexpected Garden (poems, 2006), My Unknown Words (2014) and The Cat’s Mold (forthcoming). He has published many critical texts on film and theatre in newspapers and journals.

Translated by Chris H. Sakellaridis

Chris H. Sakellaridis is a poet and teacher who was born in London in 1983 and grew up in Crete. He studied English at Queen Mary University, Social Anthropology at UCL and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Bath Spa. Poems and translations of his have been published in magazines and anthologies in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Greece. He has also been involved in radio production, animation and sound art.