Days H
‘Days H’ span the period from January 1961 to December 1963. They cover the final months of George Seferis’s tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain and extend to his return to Greece and the announcement of the Nobel Prize.
This is a rare record of the Nobel-winning poet’s inner struggles, but also a unique portrait of an entire era, illuminated through its pages.
This is a rare record of the Nobel-winning poet’s inner struggles, but also a unique portrait of an entire era, illuminated through its pages.
The volume Days H includes, in addition to the writings of George Seferis, an extensive foreword by the editor, notes, an appendix with supplementary material, an index of persons, as well as rare photographic material.
In her extensive commentary on the entries, Katerina Krikou-Davis provides factual explanations and information about the countless figures who appear throughout the pages, identifies the literary references, provides clarifications on the political and cultural events of the era, whilst also highlighting the parallels with the poet’s other works.
- Pages: 384
- ISBN: 978-960-572-261-6
- Publication: 2018
- Date of publication: 19/11/2018
- Dimensions: 14,6 Χ 21,4 εκ.
- Categories: Books, Biographies & Personal Narratives, Diaries
[…Greece is everything he dreamed of, everything that hurt him, and everything he can still give us through his poems, his Diaries, his life and his work. Let us not forget: one of the most precious parts of our heritage is (also) George Seferis…]
– Tina Mandilara, LIFO[...] First and foremost, this is the settling of a publishing ‘debt’, the fulfilment of an important promise made many decades ago. For Ikaros Publications, the release of the eighth volume and the ninth, which will follow shortly, brings to a close a cycle that began in 1975, four years after the poet’s death. His personal diary, under the general title ‘Days’, will now cover the period from 1925 to 1971. From this, one can glean extremely interesting insights both into Seferis himself and his work, as well as into the political and diplomatic developments in Greece. In this sense, the series constitutes a significant contribution to Greek literature.[...]
– Maro Vassiliadou, Kathimerini"...For those interested in Seferis’s life and work, the publication ‘brings a cycle to a close whilst also providing a wealth of information and describing the climate of political, intellectual and artistic life in Greece and England in the early 1960s’ explains Katerina Krikou-Davis in To Vima".
– To Vima"...For all these reasons and many more, ‘Days H’ is undoubtedly the publishing event of the year, proving that Seferis is missed today more than ever. We may have waited many years for this publication, but it was worth the wait, and the literary scholar Katerina Krikou-Davis, who edited the volume, together with Ikaros Publications, have given us the most precious gift of the past year."
– Tina Mandilara, LIFO"..._Days H_, the volume covering the period between 2 January 1961 and 16 December 1963, recently published in a splendid edition by Ikaros with a yellow cover, is filled with images of a world that no longer exists. I read Seferis’s simple yet evocative prose and I am transported. I feel nostalgic for an era I experienced through the descriptions of my grandparents, who were born in the 1920s."
– Lou Read"...It goes without saying that the quality of this edition was ensured by the evident preparatory work of Katerina Krikou-Davis, who, in the extensive text of ‘Prologues’ has developed and substantiated her arguments regarding the organisation and utilisation of the diverse material (diary entries and other literary and non-literary texts by George Seferis, drafts of documents and letters, clippings from the Greek, English and French press, and sketches) at her disposal."
– Alkistis Soulogianni, Bookpress.gr"...Katerina Krikou-Davis’s meticulous editing is marvellous; her detailed commentary on the documents is fascinating, breathing new life into Seferis’s notes and manuscripts and shedding light on the people and events of the era."
– Maria Houkli, Insidestory.gr"...Giorgos Seferis’s ‘Days’ continue to unfold. The eighth volume of Giorgos Seferis’s ‘Days’ was published a few days ago by Ikaros Publications, continuing their tradition of excellence in this widely read series."
– Dimitris Fyssas, Athens Voice"...in *Days*, the poet, the diplomat and the man are successfully tested day by day in their confrontation with reality. Thus, more than any other of Seferis’s works, *Days* reveals the breadth of his education, his rare sensitivity, his profound spirituality, his critical acumen, his political insight, as well as his genuine love for Greece, combined with his aversion to a large section of his compatriots who are plundering the homeland. In short, The Days reveal Seferis’s wisdom. That is why they are worth reading not so much as the diary of one of the most important Greek intellectual figures of the 20th century, but primarily as a spiritual guide to our past and present."
– Euripides Garantoudis, Eφημερίδα των Συντακτών"...Seferis’s voice echoes constantly within us, his reflection accompanies us, and his poetic recreations offer us solid ground and a foothold. Katerina Krikou-Davis’s work is highly commendable. The volume ‘Days H’ (the volume ‘Days I’ will be published shortly) is not as tightly woven; it lacks the stylistic unity of the earlier diaries, yet this is a conscious choice. By retaining elements that the poet would presumably have removed, the editor has succeeded in preserving within the texts the historical time of their composition."
– Elisabeth Kotzia, Kathimerini"...Seferis was always melancholic, but now he is even more so; health, career, poetry. The flesh may have proved particularly vulnerable, but his poetry has endured and continues to endure. This fascinating book, like all those in the Meres series, sheds light very well on the multifaceted personality of George Seferis, not only in diplomacy but also in poetry – and above all in the latter. It becomes clear that he was a great man, both as a diplomat and as a poet."
– Anthoula Daniel, Diastixo.grGiorgos Seferis
George Seferis (real name George Seferiadis, 1900–1971) was born on 29 February or 13 March 1900 in Smyrna, Asia Minor, and was the son of Stylianos and Despo Seferiadis (née Tenekidis). Stylianos Seferiadis was a distinguished academic and professor of International Law at the Law School of the University of Athens, an author (with a prolific body of scholarly work) and a diplomat. He passed on his love of literature to his three children, George, Angelos and Ioanna (later the wife of Konstantinos Tsatsos), who would all go on to pursue it. In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, the Seferiadis family moved to Athens, where Seferis completed his secondary education in 1917. He then went to Paris, where he studied law until 1924. However, as early as 1918, his love of poetry began to manifest itself and he started writing verses. During his years of study abroad, he had the opportunity to come into direct contact with the literary movements of the time. It was in Paris that he was struck by the Asia Minor Catastrophe, an event that would profoundly influence him and remain etched in his memory. In 1926, George Seferis began his diplomatic career, being appointed as an attaché at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until his retirement in 1962, he served as vice-consul and consul in London (1931–1934) and in Korçë, Albania (1936–1938), as well as press attaché at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he accompanied the Greek Government to Crete, Egypt, South Africa and southern Italy, and after the liberation to Athens, where he remained until 1948. He was subsequently appointed counsellor at the Greek embassies in Ankara and London, later serving as ambassador to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, and finally in London (1957–1962). In 1963, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. After retiring from his diplomatic career, he devoted himself entirely to his literary work until his death in 1971. His funeral, taking place in the midst of the dictatorship and following his 1969 Declaration, took on the character of a demonstration against the colonels’ regime.George Seferis’s first work is the collection “Strophe”, published in 1931. This collection provoked a variety of reactions, as it brought a breath of fresh air to Greek poetry. This was followed by “Sterna” (1932) and “Mythistorema” (1935). A year later he wrote “Gymnopedia”, and in 1938, in response to an essay by Konstantinos Tsatsos, he published “Dialogue on Poetry”. In 1940, “Exercise Book 1928–1937” and “Deck Log A” were published, containing important poems such as “Mr Stratis the Sailor” and “The King of Asini”, as well as a collection of his works published up to that point, entitled “Poems”. In 1944, “Deck Diary II” was published, written in Egypt and South Africa, where Seferis had followed the Greek government-in-exile. “Deck Diary II” was followed by the three-part “Kichli” (1947), considered by many to be one of George Seferis’s most important works, and the collection “...Cyprus, Where I Was Born”, which was published in 1955, in the midst of the Cyprus Struggle, and was later renamed “Deck Log C”. In 1950, the collection “Poems 1924–1946” was published, which is an expanded edition of his first collection of works (“Poems I”). The last collection published by George Seferis during his lifetime, which appeared 11 years after “Deck Log C”, is “Three Secret Poems” (1966). The poet’s swan song is “Exercise Book B”, which was published in 1976, edited by G.P. Savvidis, who has also edited most of the poet’s works. Apart from his poetic work, Seferis produced highly acclaimed translations, such as T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” (1936) and “Murder in the Cathedral” (1963), “Song of Songs” (1965), the “Revelation of John” (1966), “Transcriptions” (1965, containing works by European and American poets such as Ezra Pound, André Gide, Paul Éluard, Pierre-Jean Jouve), and “Transcriptions” (1980, containing texts from ancient literature). Special mention must be made of Seferis’s essays, in which he developed his views on the contemporary problems of language and literature. He wrote about Kalvos, Dante, Palamas, Sikelianos, Makrygiannis, Cavafy and Eliot. These were published under the title “Essays” (1944, published in two volumes in 1974 by Ikaros, edited by G.P. Savvidis; the third volume, also by Ikaros, was published in 1992, edited by Dim. Daskalopoulos.) There is also the poet’s personal diary, with the general title “Days”, which began to be published in 1975, four years after his death (Vol. I–VII, 1925–1960), from which one can glean extremely interesting details both about the poet himself and his work, as well as about political and diplomatic developments in Greece. Following his death, the first two volumes of the “Political Diary” (Ikaros Publications, 1979 and 1985 respectively), edited by Alexandros Xydis. In addition to the above, Seferis also wrote the “Manuscript of September ’41” and the novel “Six Nights on the Acropolis”, which, although begun in 1926–1928, was published in 1974. The final section of Seferis’s writings consists of his correspondence, the first of which to be published being that with Giorgos Theotokas (1930–1966). This is followed (in succession) by his correspondence with Adamantios Diamantis (Cypriot painter, 1953–1971), with Andreas Karantonis (1931–1960), with his wife Maro Seferis (Volume I, 1936–1940), with Zissimos Lorentzatos (1948–1968) and with Edmund Keeley (1951–1971).
