Η Σαμαρκάνδη και άλλα ποιήματα

by Wole Soyinka, Ελένη Χατζή (Translator)

Ο Wole Soyinka είναι ο πρώτος Αφρικανός που διακρίθηκε με το βραβείο Νόμπελ Λογοτεχνίας το 1986.

Genres: Poetry, Africa

184 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stars

[ⵀⴰⵙⵙⴰⵏ ⵀⴰⵢⴰⵙⵜⴰⵏⵉ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent

[Costas Papageorgiou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent translation in Greek of a very difficult and interesting poet as the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. Very illuminating and thorough introduction

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is without a doubt the finest poetry collection I've read all year, and one of the finest that I've ever read. Soyinka has a masterful command of language, and uses it to express powerful universal ideas, and to very effectively portray Nigeria, the suffering of exile, and his role in it all. The book opens with the poem 'Ah, Demosthenes' which is filled with a powerful wrath, and his desire to communicate painful truths with the world, awaken us from complacency, let us experience its horrors and not be silent.

[Abby]

There are very, very few good ways to write angry book, and Soyinka found one. We should all be grateful to those few precious souls who can show us how to be pissed off gracefully and with purpose. Favorite bit has to be the title poem, which is (among other things) a beautiful testament to buying and selling as the oldest and most peaceful interaction between strangers.


Great book no. 2 discovered solely because it had "Samarkand" in the title. I should get these wild hairs more often.

[Wale · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisite poetic experience covering a range of emotions and ideas from the humorous to the melancholic.
This would be my first collection of poems written by Soyinka; and if these are anything to go by, then I can't wait to lay my hands on the others.