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A heroic and mournful song for Albania’s lost lieutenant

Odysseas Elytis

Odysseas Elytis was born in Heraklion, Crete, on 2 November 1911. He lived in Athens, where his family settled in 1914. His origins in Lesbos, his birth in Crete, and the summers of his childhood spent in Spetses and the Cyclades shaped a profoundly insular consciousness, which later, when it intersected with surrealism, gave rise to an original poetry, brimming with a multitude of lyrical images, yet also imbued with revolutionary forces. A poetry centred on light that sought to decipher the mystery of existence. After finishing secondary school in Athens, he studied law, whilst serving as a second lieutenant in the Albanian War. He lived in Paris on two occasions (1948–1951 and 1969–1971), where he studied literature at the Sorbonne and came into contact with the leading poets and painters of the twentieth century. In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lived until the end of his life (18 March 1996) devoted to poetry. WORKS: Orientations (1940),The First Sun (1943), Heroic and Lamenting Song for the Lost Second Lieutenant of Albania (1945), Axion Esti (1959), Six and One Remorse for the Sky (1960),The Tree of Light and the Fourteenth Beauty (1971), The Sun, the Sun-bearer (1971), The Monogram (1971), The Rows of Love (1972), The Painter Theophilos (1973),Open Cards (1974), The Half-Siblings (1974), Second Writing (1976), The Magic of Papadiamantis (1976), Sematologion (1977), Maria Nefeli (1978),A Tribute to Andreas Embeirikos (1978), Three Poems with a Flag of Convenience (1982), Diary of an Unseen April (1984), Sappho (1984), The Revelation of John (1985),The Little Nautilus (1985), Krinagoras (1987), The Public and the Private (1990), Private Road (1990), The Elegies of Oxopetra (1991), In White (1992),West of Sorrow (1995), The Garden of Delusions (1995), 2 x 7 e (1996), From Up Close (1998), Self-Portrait in Spoken Word (2000), Poetry (2002).

Open Papers

Odysseas Elytis

This volume includes the prose writings of Odysseas Elytis (1946–1974): First and Foremost, Poetry The True Character and Lyrical Audacity of Andreas Kalvos Art, Chance, Audacity The girls Dreams The painter Theophilos The chronicle of a decade [preface] The texts: The dangers of half-knowledge A letter on surrealism A letter on contemporary art Poetic intelligence Meaning and sequence in our new poetry Contemporary poetic and artistic problems Review and a new beginning EPILOGUE: A: The illustrations of General Makrygiannis and the folk artist Panagiotis Zografos Contemporary Greek art and the painter N. Hatzikyriakos-Gikas Yannis Tsarouchis The wedding canopies of Yannis Moralis The sea stones of Nikolaos The sculptor Christos Kapralos The Fasians we love B: Equivalences in Picasso Karolos Koun and his era John Veltri C: Arthur Rimbaud Lautréamont Paul Éluard Pierre-Jean Jouve Federico García Lorca Giuseppe Ungaretti Pierre Reverdy between Greece and Solesmes

A heroic and mournful song for Albania’s lost lieutenant

Odysseas Elytis

Where the sun first dwelt Where the weather opened with the eyes of a maiden As the wind snowed from the shaking of the almond tree And horsemen lit up the tops of the grasses Where the hoof of a gallant plane tree struck And a flag fluttered high over land and water Where no weapon ever weighed upon the back But all the toil of the heavens The whole world shone like a drop of water Morning, at the foot of the mountain Now, as if from God’s sigh, a shadow grows.

Second edition

Odysseas Elytis

Translations: Arthur Rimbaud, Comte de Lautreamont, Paul Éluard, Pierre-Jean Jouve, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Federico García Lorca, Vladimir Mayakovsky

West of Sorrow

Odysseas Elytis

Nearby, a light rain falls upon all the still-unpruned fruit-bearing trees, close relatives and children. Together, purple blossoms, all turned CONTENTS: - OF EPHESUS - OF ROSES AND HEBE - FOR A VILLE D'AVRAY - TOWARDS TROY - IN BLUE JULY - THE MARBLE TABLE - AS CLOTHES

Orientations

Odysseas Elytis

All the clouds on earth confessed Their place was taken by a sorrow of my own And when, amidst my hair, it grew melancholy The unrepentant hand I was bound in a knot of sorrow. Included in this edition: -Early Poems -Orientations -The Hourglasses of the Unknown -Sporades -The Term of Summer

Poetry

Odysseas Elytis

This volume brings together the complete poetic works of Odysseas Elytis. Seventeen collections of poetry that allow the reader to follow a creative period spanning sixty years. Retaining the aesthetic that the poet himself established for each collection, this hardback, small-format edition includes all the illustrations and emblems of the individual collections, as well as an index of titles and opening lines. Contents: Orientations The First Sun A heroic and mournful song for the lost second lieutenant of Albania Axion Esti Six and One Remorse for the Sky The Tree of Light and the Fourteenth Beauty The Sun, the Sun-bearer The Monogram The ‘Rows’ of Love The Half-Siblings Maria Nefeli Three Poems with a Flag of Convenience Diary of an Unseen April The Little Nautilus The Elegies of Oxopetra West of Sorrow From the Nearby

Maria Nefeli

Odysseas Elytis

M.N.: I walk amidst the thorns, amidst the darkness, in what is to come and in what has passed, and my only weapon, my sole defence, are my nails, purple as cyclamen. A.: I saw her everywhere. Holding a glass and staring into space. Listening to records, sprawled on the floor. Walking down the street in baggy trousers and an old trench coat. Past the children’s shop windows. Sadder then. And in the record shops, more nervous, biting her nails. She smokes countless cigarettes. She is pale and beautiful. If you speak to her, she doesn’t even hear you at all. As if something else is happening – which only she hears and which frightens her. She holds your hand tightly, tears welling up, but she isn’t there. I never caught her and I never took anything from her.