Selected Poems

by Nikiforos Vrettakos

Vrettakos's poems are firmly rooted in the Greek landscape and coloured by the Greek light, yet their themes and sentiment are ecumenical. His garden, his own heart, are but a microcosm of the entire world, of the whole of humanity, and both contain divine messages that the lens of poetry can help us to perceive.
His poetry sings of the beauty of the natural world and offers a vision of the paradise that the world could be, but it is also imbued with a deep and painful awareness of the dark abyss that it threatens to become. For Vrettakos, the poet has a role to play in this struggle to determine the fate of the world. He is the champion of light and truth, the hight priest of beauty, whose duty it is to celebrate the world, proclaiming the cosmic message of love as that which cuts paths across the darkness. He knows only too well, however, that the poet's voice, like God's, is seldom heeded.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Nikiforos Vrettakos was a Greek writer and poet. Nikephoros Vrettakos was born in the village of Kokees, near Sparta, and published his first collection of poems, Under Shadows and Lights, in 1929, at the age of seventeen. That same year he moved to Athens to attend university, but left after a year to take a series of jobs as a clerk in various businesses. In 1937 he began a thirty year career in the Greek Civil Service, also seeing combat service in the Greco-Italian War during this period. In 1967 he responded to the takeover of Greece by a military dictatorship by going into self-imposed exile in Switzerland and Italy, where he remained until returning to Greece in 1974. He also wrote a poem about Kostas Georgakis, the student who set himself ablaze in Genoa as a protest against the junta.
Nikephoros Vretttakos was considered one of Greece's most important poets. He won a number of prizes and medals, including the Greek State Poetry Prize twice. Some of his poems became popular songs in musical settings by Greek composers, including Mikis Theodorakis. His verse was also translated into many languages. He was also elected as a member of the Academy of Athens in 1987.

Reviews

[Saimi Korhonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Whatever happens, I won't reject / the world. Even if they cut off my arms / so I can't embrace it, I'll still be able / to rest my brow against a tree, / my brow against a rock, my cheek / wizened by the wilderness against the light."

3,5/5!

Nikiforos Vrettakos is one of the most celebrated and awarded poets of Greece. This little collections gathers some of his most notable, famous and beloved poems.

So, I'm currently in Greece and went shopping at a local bookstore. One of the two foreign language shelves they had was almost completely dedicated to translations of Greek authors' works, which was super cool. I wanted to pick up something by a Greek author and because lately I've been in the mood to read more poetry, I went with this collection of Vrettakos. I'm really glad I chose this collection because even though it wasn't a 5/5 star collection for me, I still really enjoyed reading it and found the poems atmospheric and enjoyable.

Though these poems come from different collections and times in his career, they feel like a cohesive compilation. Many of them deal with similar themes and use similar imagery, often nature-based. I enjoyed the way Vrettakos weaved together nature, the divine and the human. In his poems, God can be found in seas and mountains and flowers, and love and poetry stem from both human emotion and divinity. This is one of my favorite quotes from the collection: "I'll strive to remain a loyal subject / of the world above to the end; to remain / to the end in the ranks of the universe / in a uniform of love and poetry. And I'll strive, / as I go, to follow the sun to the end." I also really loved this description of love: "Sometimes it happens that one person covers / another with light. It's the look / of love that has its beginning in infinity." Two of the more relatable moments came from the wonderful poem called "The Idea of Departing", which, I think, captured the world-weariness one often feels when going through depressive episodes or otherwise tough times: I loved the melancholy of "There are times when I feel that already / I've taken leave of the world –" and I liked the more hopeful note in this quote later on in the poem: "But / as I stumble on, now in the dimness / now in the darkness, I reflect that / non-existence is not for me / and I halt. That / perhaps I had something more / to do in this / world."

As I am no poetry expert and have no great knowledge of Vrettakos's works or career, I don't have much else to say about this book. I had a great time with it, even if I didn't fully fall in love with it. I'm happy to have it on my shelves, always, reminding me of this trip to Greece.

[Arjen]

I found This book of poetry by Nikiforos Vrettakos in small book store in Athens, Greece. I'm usually not particularly attracted to poetry myself, as more than other forms of writing poetry is like language beyond language, yet this books' cover design drew my eyes towards it.
Vrettakos' poems feel like a divine summer with the the characteristics of God and Love being attributed to the beauty of nature. It's been a perfect souvenir to my stay in Athens.

𝑺𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓
"𝘐𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘴𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵."

[H M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The complex nature of writing a tradional poem in Arabic makes me appreciate open poems less. However, Verttakos's poems are beautiful and touching. They show how much he is attached to his surroundings.. mountains, seashores, trees and the famous Greek winds. Everything mirrored his thoughts in a way, then reflected back in his poems. His relationship with God and the process of creation was evident too. Loved it.

[Kadri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The destruction of faces"

They had replaced their lost faces
with masks. Who was he
to talk to? There was no one behind
their masks. So he began then
to talk to the sun, to the trees,
to objects; not to lose contact
with the world which he declared
was good.

Not to derange
his loving relationship with the order
around him, not to shutter the axis
of his existence, that upright
innermost light: Love.

[Valdemar Gomes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful and short yet I remain unfazed with this work. I think it is too short to explain all his work, and also too religious for me to care in many references. I do think its simplicity and beauty might not be translatable to the dry english language.

[Radonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Цвеће, љубав и Бог који их је створио.. Обавезно читати уз зраке сунца на себи. Кратко, једноставно, баш једноставно, божански једноставно.. За читати сваког дана.

[McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tree/ in bloom fills me entirely

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

High 3.
📖

Some beautiful short pieces in this collection. Really lovely imagery and connection to land.

[Jonathan Koven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotionally-charged, beautiful collection from a classic Greek poet. Picked up on my honeymoon, I loved these translations and this poet's voice. These poems feel universal, delicate, while not too sentimental nor intellectual -- but just right. Gorgeous messages of love, truth, and creative purpose.