THE POETS' VOICE

Παρουσίαση

The Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy, celebrating both Constantine Cavafy Year (2013) and the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize award to George Seferis (1963), has published this volume of poems by the two distinguished Greek poets.
Constantine Cavafy and George Seferis, with their poetic oeuvre and their influence on contemporary and future poets, were chiefly responsible for shaping the course of Modern Greek poetry after 1930. In using irony as the main instrument for creating poetic feeling, Cavafy not only contrives to arouse poetic emotion; his verse remains equally relevant today, through a technique of clearly evident historical and political analogy. Seferis responded to the raw realism of Cavafy, disguised as history, by humanising his mythological heroes with the features of men and women of his own time. The combination in his own lifetime of politics and poetry enabled him to perceive all aspects of life within the context of the fundamental pairing of justice and injustice.
Through the medium of political reference, both these great poets achieved the ultimate goal of their creative work: poetic catharsis, experienced as a transcending of the human condition. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Prologue
Introduction
C. P. CAVAFY
Waiting for the Barbarians
King Dimitrios
The Satrapy
The Ides of March
Ithaka
Philhellene
Alexandrian Kings
But the Wise Perceive Things About to Happen
Theodotos
The Displeasure of Selefkidis
For Ammonis, who Died at 29, in 610
One of Their Gods
In the Month of Athyr
Nero's Deadline
Envoys from Alexandria
Of Dimitrios Sotir (162-150 B.C.)
Dareios
A Byzantine Nobleman in Exile Composing Verses
Dimaratos
From the School of the Renowned Philosopher
Epitaph of Antiochos, King of Kommagini
John Kantakuzinos Triumphs
Of Colored Glass
In a Township of Asia Minor
In a Large Greek Colony, 200 B.C.
A Prince from Western Libya
To Have Taken the Trouble
In the Year 200 B.C.
The God Abandons Antony
GEORGE SEFERIS
Mythistorema
I The angel
II Still one more well inside a cave
III I woke with this marble head...
IV And a soul / if it is to know itself
V We didn't know them
VI The garden with its fountains...
VII Westward the sea merges...
VIII What are they after, our souls...
IX The harbour is old, I can't wait...
X Our country is closed in, all mountains
XI Sometimes your blood froze like the moon
XII Three rocks, a few burnt pines, a lone chapel
XIII Dolphins banners and the sound of canons
XIV Three red pigeons in the light
XV Sleep wrapped you in green leaves...
XVI On the track, once more on track...
XVII Now that you are leaving, take the boy...
XVIII I regret having let a broad river slip...
XIX Even if the wind blows it doesn't cool us
XX In my breast the wound opens again
XXI We who set out on this pilgrimage
XXII So very much having past before our eyes
XXIII A little farther
XXIV Here end the works of the sea...
In the Manner of G. S.
Our Sun
The Last Day
The King of Asini
Stratis Thalassinos Among the Agapanthi
An Old Man on the River Bank
"On Aspalathoi..."
Notes to the Poems