ODYSSEAS ELYTIS CENTENARY

Next year (2011) is the centenary of the birth of Greek Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseas Elytis.

You may be wondering how it was possible for me to give a "centenary" paper last night on Elytis' early poetry, at the Solomos Museum in Corfu, for the Society of Corfiot Studies conference (Elytis Synedrio), when I am not in Greece.

I was very fortunate that the outstanding translator (and editor) Demetrios Dallas translated my paper into Greek and kindly agreed to read it out on my behalf. The original (much longer) paper in English was also distributed to those who wanted the English version. Anyone interested in either the English or Greek versions could leave a comment on this blog, but I am hoping both versions will be published in due course.

This is the second time I have written papers on Greece's greatest poets (of the "1930's generation"). See: http://www.interpotts.com/speeches.htm for my lecture on George Seferis, at the Mediterranean Museum, Stockholm, on 6 May 2003: “There is an island …Diplomacy and Poetry, Friendship and War” - A British Tribute to George Seferis to mark the fortieth anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize for  Literature".

Jim with Ann Margaret Mellberg (Greek Cultural Counsellor, Stockholm and translator of Strindberg, etc) and Professor Emeritus Kjell Espmark, Member of the Swedish Academy, distinguished Swedish poet and Chairman of the Nobel Prize Literature Committee, who read Seferis' poems in Swedish translation, as part of the lecture; see http://www.svenskaakademien.se/web/Kjell_Espmark_1.aspx

Yannis Ritsos was the only one of the "great three" Greek poets (of the 30's generation) I ever met personally, when I organised an event to celebrate, in part, the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of his first collection of poetry.

I feel I know them all, from their writing in prose and poetry, but Seferis and Ritsos much better than Elytis.
Still, I hope the paper went down well last night. Demetrios Dallas and Dimitris Konidaris are kind enough to say it did. My thanks to them and to the Society of Corfiot Studies.