A woman from Batumi meets Nikos Kazantzakis

From the day of its establishment, Batumi has attracted many people with different professions, interests or social status. Some of them visited Batumi for a few days or months, but this small seaside city left an indelible mark on them. There are many interesting people among the visitors, one of them being Nikos Kazantzakis, the best representative of modern Greek prose. He is one of the best representatives of modern Greek prose, having been nominated for the Nobel Prize nine times.
Kazantzakis is the author of the novels Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas (1946), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He has also written numerous plays, memoirs and philosophical essays.
Kazantzakis first visited Batumi in 1919. He had a special mission, negotiating with independent Georgia on the issues of Greek refugees living in Georgia. During his first visit to Batumi, he spent only two weeks. This period turned out to be fateful for him and Barbara, the romance with whom he described in his latest book, Report to Greco. He called one chapter of the book “Caucasus”, where he describes his meeting with a woman from Batumi. He was a tourist in 1927 and 1928 and he described his adventures in the book “Russian Diary” and “Report to Greco”.

“I have never met a woman more beautiful. No, not beautiful, there was something else that words could not contain – eyes green, hypnotizing and dangerous, and like a snake, the voice was slightly hoarse, full of promises, refusal and sweetness. I was looking at her and thinking: this minute will never happen again. I will never meet this woman again. It took billions of years, countless adventures, occasions, destinies to give birth to this woman and this man, for them to meet each other on one of the shores of the Caucasus, in this courtyard adorned with these Arab canes. What should we do, should we let go of this divine second?
The woman turned around, dropping her eyelids.

Nikolai Mikhailovich, she told me, do you want to run away?
I started shaking, the woman dared and said the words I dreamt to say and could not say them.

Let’s run! I said, where do we go?

Somewhere far from here, my husband bores me, I’m drowning here, wilting, I feel sorry for my body Nikolai Mikhailovich, I’m sorry, let ‘s run away.

And what about the duty Barbara Nikolaevna, those thousands of people expecting help from me?
The woman shook her head, untied the golden braid in her hair, pulled down her golden blonde hair on her shoulders, pressed her lips stubbornly.

Duty! She said sarcastically. One thing you should learn from me, only one duty is assigned to you: do not let happiness escape you. Catch it. Catch me with my hair, Nikolai Mikhailovich, no one can see us.
I was looking at the sea. Only demons fought in me. Not a single angel. Fate was lurking and waiting. A while has passed. The woman stood up completely pale. It’s done! – She said, – it’s done, – you did not agree immediately, you weighed the benefits and losses, it is done! I will not go with you now even if you want me to.” [From the book The Dark Red Reflection of the Great Fire.]
The story was over, but the memories lingered throughout his life and gave him no rest. In his latest work, Nikos Kazantzakis wrote:
“A thousand years later, in the joyless old age, I close my eyes and the Arabian reeds grow again, the Black Sea touches my temples, Barbara appears and sits in front of me, not on a chair, but on white pebbles: I am looking at her, looking and thinking: was I right when I did not catch the divine second with its hair?!”