Nikiforos Vrettakos - The song is never interrupted in the middle!

Yesterday I bought a copy of "Selected Poems" by Nikiforos Vrettakos, translated by David Connolly.

From "I Graphi Mou" ("My Writing"):

I read the next poem (the Greek original) out loud to a prose-writer:

The laconic comment and reaction? "He's grateful for what he's got".

Some of Vrettakos' other poems have been set to music, like All the years that I was away ~ Όλα τα χρόνια που έλειπα  and Τ' όνομά σου -  and I am going to build a house ~ Θα κτίσω ένα σπίτι.

I once had the opportunity to meet him in Athens, back in 1979. Nikiforos Vrettakos is on the far right.

I translated excerpts from his poem One More Spring (from In Memoriam, 1940-1944). A few lines from my version in Corfu Blues (the book) follow:


"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!"

THE FORTUNES OF 20th CENTURY GREEK POETRY IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION by DAVID CONNOLLY (Poeticanet)

About David Connolly