Modern Greek Poetry

"Well," you say, "what about modern Greek poetry? Isn't it about time you said something about that?"

Okay, thanks to Kimon Friar, we can say a few things. Modern Greek Poetry, translation, introduction, commentaries and notes by Kimon Friar, Efstathiadis Group, 2005 (you'll be able to pick up your copy at the Hania airport), covers Greek poetry from the late 1800s through the mid 1960s. While you might object, saying, "that doesn't sound very modern to me", Friar has selected poems from all the heavy hitters from the 20th century: Cavafis, Sikelianos, Seferis, Elytis, and Gatsos; as well as lots more who deserve to be better known.

And, Friar has also provided short biographies of each poet with interesting information like: "Many of his poems were written on cigarette boxes and scraps of paper aboard ship."; "... he has tended toward a conscious control of the subconscious ..."; "His poems are often inspired by a frenetic, orgiastic, Dionysian ecstasy in an ultimate triumph of life, love, and a lust so cleaned of guilt and ethical distortions that it flows as from the pure springs of creation."; and, "In substance, his poetry becomes transcendent and ultimately irrational."

Of course, now you'll want to read the book yourself, but here are a few selections that we think stand out, and which seem to have the common theme of heat and light; impressive things here on Crete.

Aquarelle

On the mole, half-asleep in the summer's heat,
scalding mists leap above the blazing sand,
and its small houses, whitewashed and stripped bare,
make white brush strokes on the unmoving sea.
There gold-green waters in translucency
reveal snake-twisted seaweed, silver pebbles,
red-rusting anchors, shadows of dark blue
cast round their rims by the becalmed caiques.

Not a single soul! A lone man fishing there
stretches his numb hands sluggishly and yawns,
then sprawls on the hot stones and falls asleep;
there only a ferocious, black-haired dog
squats by the prow of a large fishing boat
and squints on the dead seastrand drowsily.

Kostas Ouranis

Daybreak

Frenziedly but certain
The colt of day charges into
The mouth of spring and the birds are singing
With the clear sky in their voices
Like flutes that echo and reecho in the flora
Of a handful of angels who remain in rapture
Like windflowers that arise
From the petals of pleasure.

Andreas Embiricos

And this, also by Embiricos, from his prose poem "In The Street of the Philhellenes":

"Oh God! This searing heat is necessary to produce such light!"