Dimitris Doukaris and Nikiforos Vrettakos, Two Greek Poets; Δημήτρης Δούκαρης & Νικηφόρος Βρεττάκος

Dimitris Doukaris

Back in the archives again! I was looking for some poems by Dimitris Doukaris, who was the director and editor of an outstanding monthly Greek literary periodical, called Tom-es (Cuts, Sections or Incisions). He published a selection of my own poems, translated into Greek by Alexander Myriallis, and in 1979 I was invited to a special event in honour of Nikiforos Vrettakos, to celebrate fifty years of his contribution to Greek poetry. It was a "Thalassino Peripato" (an onboard party and sea cruise) organised by Tomes on 5 October, 1979.

Nikiforos Vrettakos on the left.

Dimitris Doukaris welcomes me aboard the Saronic Star.

(Tomes, December, 1979)

With Dimitris Doukaris (centre); Alexander Myriallis; Nikiforos Vrettakos

Two poems by Dimitris Doukaris, Δημήτρης Δούκαρης

The first, "Secret Commission", Κρυπτεία,was translated by Nikos Spanias and appeared in Resistance, Exile and Love, An Anthology of Post-War Greek Poetry, Pella, New York, 1977:

The second, The Grammar of the Body, was translated by Kimon Friar, and appeared in Poetry, November, 1981

I translated some extracts from a poem by Nikiforos Vrettakos, One More Spring (In Memoriam, 1940-1944), which appeared in my book "Corfu Blues"(Stockholm, 2006):

Here in this strange country,

Where rivers, stones, gorges,

Clouds and mountains fight our wars as comrades,

Fight beside us, get wounded with us,

Here Byron died, where on these trees

Armatoloi and klephts would hang their songs:

Long gone those times, when Byron died.

From his Greece, he left no descendant.

What did they come here to do,

The soldiers from his fatherland,

For us to ask the birds to sing for him?

We waited for them to come,

To give us once again

A few flowers

From the earth of Shelley

Whom we loved...

Let's tell them, so they understand:

Olympus will not bend, will not be lowered!

The sun doesn't change,

The colours of the country never change,

The song is never interrupted in the middle!

***

Both Doukaris and Vrettakos, poets of the Left, express disillusionment with the nature of the liberation of Greece in 1944, and with the British troops who came to liberate them. In spite of that, personal and literary relations remained courteous, hospitable, welcoming and friendly. That, surely, is the value of Cultural Relations work?

One wonders if the same welcoming and friendly attitude will be manifest in the coming days and months, after the current negotiations with the Troika are concluded.

NB Tomes (Incisions)  is pronounced with a stress on the second syllable: Tomés


Related Postings: Honouring Iannis Ritsos

Poem on a Napkin (Ritsos)