- Publisher : Elfenbein; 1st edition (21 August 2023)
- Language : German
- Perfect Paperback : 48 pages
- ISBN-10 : 3961600902
- ISBN-13 : 978-3961600908
- Dimensions : 13.2 x 0.9 x 21.5 cm
Tank Man ― the seventh volume of poetry by the Greek poet Giorgos Lillis living in Germany ― refers to the unknown rebel who stood in front of the tanks in 1989 after the massacre on Tian'anmen, the "Place of Tiananmen Peace", and tried to stop them: he held only two shopping bags. ten in the hand. The absurdity of his act of resistance, magnificent and senseless at the same time, becomes the leitmotif of the nineteen poems, in which the poetic subject positions itself against any form of authority and oppression by his own means. It tells of courage and resistance, but also of weakness, failure and despair. Against the background of Greek reality in the years of crisis, Lillis succeeds in conveying his personal experience and perception without detaching from the social whole ― sometimes in quiet confession, sometimes in bitter self-sarcasm, sometimes as a loud defiance and protest. Unwilling to adapt to the reality imposed by hard everyday life and societal demands, the poetic voice hovers between desire and reality, in its endless search for freedom, dignity and self-determination.