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- Pages: 43
- ISBN: 978-960-7233-44-8
- Publication: 1993
- Dimensions: 20,5 x 13,5
- Categories: Books, Essays & Thought, Δοκίμιο
Nikos Karouzos’s eternal Easter as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry. For the pre-eminent Greek poet, Easter was not merely the great feast of Christianity, but a constant source of existential reflection.
– Giorgos-Ikaros Babasakis, LIFONikos Karouzos
Nikos Karouzos (1926–1990), son of Dimitris and Konstantina, née Pitsaki, was born in Nafplio. His father was a teacher who had joined the National Liberation Front; he was persecuted during the civil war and exiled following the Varkiza Agreement. His mother was the daughter of a priest and a teacher. During his secondary school years, Karouzos was active in the EPO and was exiled to Ikaria (1947) and Makronissos (1951), from where he finally left in 1953 following a nervous breakdown. He married twice: in 1955 to Maria Daraki, with whom he lived for just a few months, and in 1963 to Mary Meimarakis, from whom he divorced in 1980. From 1981 until the end of his life, he was accompanied by Eva Bey.
He studied law and political science in Athens, but did not complete his studies, as he had already turned to poetry by 1941. In 1949, he made his first official appearance in the literary world with the publication of his poem “Simon of Cyrene” in the magazine “Our Age”. His first collection of poetry, entitled “The Return of Christ”, was published in 1954. He became better known in literary circles in the 1960s with the collections “The Deer of the Stars”, “The Sleeping Bag” and “Laments”. Many more collections and anthologies of his poems followed, culminating in his final poetic work, "Suspension", written on 29 August 1990 at the Ygeia Hospital, where the poet had been hospitalised for the last two years of his life, suffering from cancer.
He contributed to magazines such as "Nea Estia", "Athinaika Grammata", "Efthini", "Spira", "Tomes" and "I Leksi". He was honoured with the Second State Prize for Poetry (1963), the Group of Twelve Prize (1963), the First National Poetry Prize, jointly with Takis Varvitsiotis and Milto Sachouris (1972), and the First State Poetry Prize (1988).
