The purpose of our life is not mediocrity. There are countless more beautiful things than this statue-like presence of the past era. The purpose of our life is love. The purpose of our life is our endless mass. The purpose of our life is the fruitful acceptance of our life and every wish of ours in every place at every moment in every fervent stirring of the existing. The purpose of our life is the marked hide of our existence.

(Roses at the window) The High Furnace, a collection of 63 prose-like poems, is the first text published by Andreas Empirikos. It was printed in 200 numbered copies by Kastalia Publishing in March 1935 in Athens, 11 years after André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto in Paris. Shortly before, on January 25, 1935, Empirikos had given the lecture 'On Surrealism' at the Artists' Club. Empirikos comes into contact with the circle of surrealists and is introduced to their technique of automatic writing around 1929.

The High Furnace is a unique book of modern Greek poetic production. No poet before, and none after, has composed a book so heretical, so cryptic, and 'incomprehensible', which however was quickly exhausted, 'not from interest but because it was considered a scandalous book, written by a madman', as the poet himself recalls.

Without punctuation, with a primarily formal and elaborate language, with endless phrases, with perfect syntax but without apparent logical coherence, the High Furnace responds to the demands of free association and the consequent automatic writing proclaimed by André Breton and his circle. However, it would be difficult for anyone to convincingly argue that the poems of the High Furnace were composed 'automatically' or 'randomly', despite the fact that Empirikos himself assures that these poems do not always develop 'within conscious limits'.

The recipe will not be repeated, but this experimentation succeeded in showcasing the most authentic text of Greek surrealism.