"Prayer": A mother's; a country's, lament
This issue of Cinematic Elegy features a Cavafy poem titled "Prayer."
It's a poem expressing a human desire for divine protection when faced with inevitable loss.
This is a tough subject, but it is one we were called to design for when we collaborated with artist Stelios Stylianou for an exhibition of works about an invading and occupying army in his native land of Cyprus. Stelios focused on the mothers and wives who were lamenting the loss of their loved ones, & the role of faith and belief in the divine while grieving.
Back to the poem storyboarded here:
The slideshow below features the poem in the original Greek (left pages), and in English translation (right pages), a few verses per slide, followed by the entire set of images, and the entire poem. Click on the image for a pop-up.
Coda: A long time ago I started pairing Cavafy poems with sets of images, a process I termed "cinematic poetry." Think of it as storyboarding for a micro-movie whose script is the poem.
Cavafy poems feature succinct descriptions of spaces, places, and objects--the things I care about and design for.
Comments