Odysseas Elytis
Odysseas Elytis | |
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University of Athens (no degree)[1] | |
Literary movement | Romantic modernism, Generation of the '30s[2] |
Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 1979 |
Signature | |
Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης [oðiˈseas eˈlitis], pen name of Odysseas Alepoudellis, Greek: Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλλης; 2 November 1911 – 18 March 1996) was a Greek poet, man of letters, essayist and translator, regarded as the definitive exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. He is one of the most praised poets of the second half of the twentieth century,[3] with his Axion Esti "regarded as a monument of contemporary poetry".[4] In 1979, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[5]
Biography
Descendants of the Alepoudelis, whose name going back was Alepos and even further back connected to the revolutionary Lemonis in Lesbos, Panayiotis Alepoudelis and his younger brother Thrasyboulos, both born in the village Kalamiaris of Panagiouthas of Lesbos, established the industries of their soap manufacturing and olive oil production in
In 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of such friends as
From 1969 to 1972, under the
The war
In 1937 he served his military requirements. As an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu. He assisted Frederica of Hanover off the train and on to Greek soil personally when she arrived from Germany to marry hereditary Prince Paul. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially at the 1st Army Corps Headquarters, then transferred to the 24th Regiment, on the first-line of the battlefields. In 1941, he contracts an acute case of typhus abdominalis and is transferred to the Ioanina Hospital into the pathology unit for officers. Elytis comes very close to his death here and given options to stay at this hospital and be a prisoner when the Germans fully enter and occupy or be transferred with the risk of intestinal perforation and hemorrhage. On the eve of the invasion of the German armies he decides to be transferred to Aigrinio and from there eventually back to Athens where he makes a slow but steady recovery during the German occupation. He begins to outline poetry for his eventual work "Sun The First" and in Alexandria Seferis delivers a lecture on Elytis and Antoniou. Elytis was sporadically publishing poetry and essays after his initial foray into the literary world.[6]
He was a member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.[7]
Programme director for ERT
He was twice Programme Director of the
Travels
In 1948–1952 and 1969–1972 he lived in Paris. There, he audited philology and literature seminars at the
In 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the USA from March to June to New York Washington New Orleans Santa Fe Los Angeles San Francisco Boston Buffalo Chicago His return was to Paris to meet up with Teriade and then to Greece — Upon similar invitations in 1962 with Andreas Embiricos and Yiorgos Theotokas [1905-1966] through the Soviet Union to Odessa Moscow and Leningrad. Elytis did not like Yevgeny Yevtushenko when they were introduced but appreciated Voznesensky That summer he spent part of his holidays on Corfu Island and the rest on Lesbos where he and Teriade[who had returned from Paris] were establishing the foundations of a museum dedicated to the painter Theophilos. In 1964 the inaugural performance of the oratorio to the poetry of the Axion Esti as set to music by MIkis Theodorakis was held. In 1965 he completes the essays that will be comprised as the book "The Open Papers" and in that summer visits the Greek islands yet again. He visited Bulgaria in 1965[6] with his friend Yiorgos Theotokas [their final journey together as Theotokas would die in October 1966] on the invitation of the Union of Bulgarian Authors; their guide throughout this country was the poetess Elisaveta Bagryana [1893-1991], who had been nominated three times until then for the Nobel prize in Literature. In 1965 he was also bestowed with the Phoenix Cross, the highest honour of the Greek nation.
Elytis was a believer and follower of numerology in all its forms: Biblical, Kabbalah, Chaldean and Pythagorean. He also believed in vedic astrology and held certain beliefs of Hinduism to be true. Pablo Picasso had given him three instructions about the course of life which he attempted to uphold sacrosanct. Elytis was beset with the untimely death of friends and relatives throughout his life. Yiorgos Theotokas, George Seferis, Andreas Embiricos, George Sarandaris. Of all the deaths that happened Karydis his publisher at Ikaros shook him up the most. Elytis had cordial relations with Yiannis Ritsos and close ties with his best friend Nikos Gatsos, both poets of the same generation.
Death
Odysseas Elytis had been completing plans to travel overseas to see friends when he died of a heart failure in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. He had made it known that he was a believer in cremation and had wished that somehow he could have been cremated which the tenets of his Greek Orthodox religion do not support or allow. He was also a supporter of the legalization of euthanasia for people who wished to die after pain and suffering. And he believed it was a woman's right to choose abortion in any circumstance. In the last ten years of his life he lived with a companion, Ioulita Iliopoulou [nee Sofia Iliopoulou, daughter of Dimitrios and Demetra July 1, 1965] who was 53 years his junior. Iliopoulou is an activist for children throughout the world imparting her knowledge whenever she is able to. She is a successful artist in her own right translating and composing her own works and giving poetry recitals at the Theocharakis Foundation in Athens. Iliopoulou is gifted and acclaimed also as fine librettist and poetess Like Kriezi she is a musicologist and is highly literate in it. She has taken the difficult works of Elytis into a wider audience with extreme care and understanding. Elytis died in his Athens apartment on March 18, 1996, of heart failure. The funeral was held the next day.The funeral was jammed with people who had loved his poetry. He was buried in a family grave beside his family, including his mother and brother.
Iliopoulou as his life partner inherited the immovable property in real estate of Elytis which consisted of four apartments and the trustee power of copyrights to his work. She has been promoting Elytis with excellence in his legacy. Elytis was survived in his bloodline by his niece Myrsene (from his oldest brother Theodoros born 1900) and his next in line older brother Evangelos. This brother (born 1909-2002) also received a writ of condolence from the mayor of Athens on behalf of the nation at the funeral at the First Cemetery of Athens.
Poetry
Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. He borrowed certain elements from
Works
Poetry
- Orientations (Προσανατολισμοί, 1939)
- Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (Ηλιος ο πρώτος, παραλλαγές πάνω σε μιαν αχτίδα, 1943)
- An Heroic And Funeral Chant For The Lieutenant Lost In Albania (Άσμα ηρωικό και πένθιμο για τον χαμένο ανθυπολοχαγό της Αλβανίας, 1962)
- To Axion Esti—It Is Worthy (Το Άξιον Εστί, 1959)
- Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky (Έξη και μια τύψεις για τον ουρανό, 1960)
- The Light Tree And The Fourteenth Beauty (Το φωτόδεντρο και η δέκατη τέταρτη ομορφιά, 1972)
- The Sovereign Sun (Ο ήλιος ο ηλιάτορας, 1971)
- The Trills of Love (Τα Ρω του Έρωτα, 1973)
- Villa Natacha {published in Thessaloniki by Tram and dedicated to E Terade 1973]
- The Monogram (Το Μονόγραμμα, 1972)
- Step-Poems (Τα Ετεροθαλή, 1974)
- Signalbook (Σηματολόγιον, 1977)
- Maria Nefeli (Μαρία Νεφέλη, 1978)
- Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας 1982)
- Diary of an Invisible April (Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου, 1984)* Krinagoras (Κριναγόρας, 1987)
- The Little Mariner (Ο Μικρός Ναυτίλος, 1988)
- The Elegies of Oxopetra (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας, 1991)
- West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης, 1995)
Prose, essays
- The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (Η Αληθινή φυσιογνωμία και η λυρική τόλμη του Ανδρέα Κάλβου, 1942)
- 2x7 e (collection of small essays) (2χ7 ε (συλλογή μικρών δοκιμίων))
- (Offering) My Cards To Sight (Ανοιχτά χαρτιά (συλλογή κειμένων), 1973)
- The Painter Theophilos (Ο ζωγράφος Θεόφιλος, 1973)
- The Magic Of Papadiamantis (Η μαγεία του Παπαδιαμάντη, 1975)
- Reference to Andreas Embeirikos (Αναφορά στον Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκο, 1977)
- Things Public and Private (Τα Δημόσια και τα Ιδιωτικά, 1990)
- Private Way (Ιδιωτική Οδός, 1990)
- Carte Blanche («Εν λευκώ» (συλλογή κειμένων), 1992)
- The Garden with the Illusions (Ο κήπος με τις αυταπάτες, 1995)
- Open Papers: Selected Essays (Copper Canyon Press, 1995) (translated by Olga Broumas and T. Begley)
Art books
- The Room with the Pictures (Το δωμάτιο με τις εικόνες, 1986) – collages by Odysseas Elytis, text by Evgenios Aranitsis
Translations
- Second Writing (Δεύτερη γραφή, 1976)
- Sappho (Σαπφώ)
- The Apocalypse (by John) (Η αποκάλυψη, 1985)
Translations of Elytis' work
- Poesie. Procedute dal Canto eroico e funebre per il sottotenente caduto in Albania. Trad. Mario Vitti (Roma. Il Presente. 1952)
- 21 Poesie. Trad. Vicenzo Rotolo (Palermo. Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. 1968)
- Poèmes. Trad. Robert Levesque (1945)
- Six plus un remords pourle ciel. Trad. F. B. Mache (Fata Morgana. Montpellier 1977)
- Körper des Sommers. Übers. Barbara Schlörb (St. Gallen 1960)
- Sieben nächtliche Siebenzeiler. Übers. Günter Dietz (Darmstadt 1966)
- To Axion Esti – Gepriesen sei. Übers. Günter Dietz (Hamburg 1969)
- The Axion Esti. Tr. E. Keeley and G. Savidis (Pittsburgh 1974 – Greek & English)(repr. London: Anvil Press, 1980 – English only)
- Lofwaardig is. Vert. Guido Demoen (Ghent 1989–1991)
- The Sovereign Sun: selected poems. Tr. K. Friar (1974; repr. 1990)
- Selected poems. Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981; repr. 1982, 1991)
- Maria Nephele, tr. A. Anagnostopoulos (1981)
- Çılgın Nar Ağacı, tr. C. Çapan (Istanbul: Adam Yayınları, 1983)
- What I love: selected poems, tr. O. Broumas (1986) [Greek & English texts]
- To Àxion Estí, tr. Rubén J. Montañés (Valencia: Alfons el Magnànim, 1992) [Catalan & Greek edition with notes]
- Eros,Eros,Eros, Selected & Last Poems, tr. Olga Broumas (Copper Canyon Press, 1998)
- The Collected Poems of Odysseus Elytis, tr. Jeffrey Carson & Nikos Sarris (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, 2004)
- The Oxopetra Elegies and West of Sorrow, tr. David Connolly (Harvard University Press - 2014) (Greek & English texts)
Notes
- ^ Nelly Ismailidou, "The path to being a successful person doesn't always go through college", To Vima, August 29, 2010.
- ISBN 0820486396. p. 160.
- ISBN 0-8018-4924-1.
- JSTOR 27545560.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1979". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ a b c d e f Odysseus Elytis – Biographical. nobelprize.org
- ^ Association of Greek Art Critics, International Association of Art Critics. "AICA-HELLAS History". Archived from the original on 2008-05-11.
References
- From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968–1980, Editor-in-Charge: Tore Frängsmyr, Editor: Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993.
Further reading
- Mario Vitti: Odysseus Elytis. Literature 1935–1971 (Icaros 1977)
- Tasos Lignadis: Elytis' Axion Esti (1972)
- Lili Zografos: Elytis – The Sun Drinker (1972); as well as the special issue of the American magazine Books Abroad dedicated to the work of Elytis (Autumn 1975. Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.)
- Odysseas Elytis: Analogies of Light. Ed. I. Ivask (1981)
- A. Decavalles: Maria Nefeli and the Changeful Sameness of Elytis' Variations on a theme (1982)
- E. Keeley: Elytis and the Greek Tradition (1983)
- Ph. Sherrard: 'Odysseus Elytis and the Discovery of Greece', in Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 1(2), 1983
- K. Malkoff: 'Eliot and Elytis: Poet of Time, Poet of Space', in Comparative Literature, 36(3), 1984
- A. Decavalles: 'Odysseus Elytis in the 1980s', in World Literature Today, 62(l), 1988
- I. Loulakaki-Moore: Seferis and Elytis as Translators. (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010)
External links
- Odysseas Elytis on Nobelprize.org
- Biography in the site of Greek National Book Centre Archived 2006-12-31 at the Wayback Machine
- Recitations of poems by Elytis
- Parts of works of his
- Books in Greek about Elytis Archived 2013-01-12 at archive.today