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Selected Poems 1940-1979

Odysseus Elytis

Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

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Categories: Greek, Translation
Imprint: Anvil Press Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
Paperback (160 pages)
(Pub. Dec 2007)
9780856463556
£12.99 £11.69
  • Description
  • Author
  • This representative selection from the work of one of modern Greece’s most fascinating poets was made shortly after his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. It is drawn from all periods of his distinguished career and traces his development from early surrealism, in which he transforms French influence into a distinct personal voice and mythology, through the dramatic style of The Axion Esti with its blend of spirituality and earthiness, up to the later work in which he experiments with new modes for expressing his perennial themes. The poems are chosen, introduced and mainly translated by the leading translators of modern Greek poetry, Edmund Keeley and the late Philip Sherrard, whose collaborations also included translations of Seferis, Cavafy and Sikelianos. Other contributors to the book include George Savidis, Nanos Valaoritis and John Stathatos.

    Odysseus Elytis
    Odysseus Elytis, born in Crete in 1911, began to publish his poetry in the 1930s. He took part in the campaign against the Italian fascists in Albania in 1940–41. He was one of the most prominent poets of the Greek resistance during the Nazi occupation. The Nobel Prize was awarded ... read more
    Edmund Keeley
    Edmund Keeley translated the poetry of Cavafy, Seferis and Sikelianos with the late Philip Sherrard. His translations of Yannis Ritsos received the Academy of American Poets’ Landon Award and the EU’s First European Prize. He is a novelist whose non-fiction works include Cavafy’s Alexandria and Inventing Paradise . He lives in ... read more
    Philip Sherrard
    Philip Sherrard (1922–1995) lived his later years on the island of Evia. Among his many books perhaps the best-known are two studies of modern Greek literature, The Marble Threshing Floor and The Wound of Greece, and the later Edward Lear: The Corfu Years . With Edmund Keeley he translated the ... read more
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