Axion Esti. Elytes Odysseus

by Odysseus Elytis and Odysseas Elytis

Book Overview

When Odysseus Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy's citation singled out The Axion Esti, first published in 1959, as 'one of twentieth-century literature's most concentrated and richly faceted poems.' It can be seen both as a secular oratorio, reflecting the Greek heritage and the country's revolutionary spirit, and also as a kind of autobiography, in which the spiritual roots of the poet's very individual sensibility...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0856463566
• ISBN13: 9780856463563
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Carcanet Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

...Light Life Love...

Resplendent. All that I have tried to accomplish in my writing is crystallized by this tender-voiced poet. Here, he takes the elemental power of beauty found in nature, youth and man, and restructures the reality of time. He weaves a personal mythology, integrating surrealism and Greek history. It is impossible to describe the affect and style of this work which alternates between prose, free verse and complex, metered verse. The eternal conflict and balance between Light and Dark is chronicled. Elytis speaks with a universality that transcends war and history specific to Greece--his message is applicable to all peoples and times. Moving, tragic, humorous, dark and beautiful, The Axion Esti celebrates Light, Life and Love. Stin archi to Fos kai i ora i proti, pou ta cheili akoma ston pilo dokimazoun ta pragmata tou kosmou...