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Poèmes 1933-1955 suivis de Trois Poèmes secrets
Édition bilingue. Nouvelle édition en 1987
- GenresPoetry
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
54 people want to read
About the author
George Seferis
130 books173 followersGeorge Seferis, pen name of Georgios Seferiadis,
Greek: Γιώργος Σεφέρης
Awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture."
First Greek to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos...
Greek: Γιώργος Σεφέρης
Awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture."
First Greek to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2024
Flame is healed by flame,
not through the stillicide of seconds
but all at once, in a flash;
like the desire that mingled with the other desire
and remained transfixed,
or like
the rhythm of music that remains
there in the center like a statue,
motionless.
It is not a passage, this breathing,
but a tiller-thrust of lightning.
*
The sea wind and the coolness of dawn
exist without being sought.
not through the stillicide of seconds
but all at once, in a flash;
like the desire that mingled with the other desire
and remained transfixed,
or like
the rhythm of music that remains
there in the center like a statue,
motionless.
It is not a passage, this breathing,
but a tiller-thrust of lightning.
*
The sea wind and the coolness of dawn
exist without being sought.
July 25, 2017
On a Ray of Winter Sun
On Stage
Summer Solstice
This collection of three sets of poems is really excellent.
The middle one, "On Stage," was me least favorite, but I am entirely willing to believe that this is due to my lack of familiarity with Greek theatrical practice and tropes. The translator, Walter Kaiser, mentions in the introduction how difficult it was to convey cultural and mythical elements that would have been entirely clear to Greeks but not apparent at all to others, and also cogently points out some differences in relation with the natural world as experienced by those of different climes.
It is not merely that our sun is more pallid than his or that we in the north seek the sun in summer while Greeks seek the shade. Perhaps one can come closer to its meaning for Seferis if one recalls that the tragedies of English drama take place at midnight, whereas those of Greek drama reach their catastrophe at high noon.
You are playing with me, sun;
and yet, this is not a dance:
so much nakedness
is almost blood,
or some wild forest;
and then --
For Seferis, the Greek sun is this ultimate paradox, both life-giver and death-bringer, desired and feared, "angelic" and "black." "You stare into the sun, then you are lost in darkness." Kaiser goes on to quote from a letter in which Seferis wrote to George Katsimbalis, this alternation of Hubris and Ate, which one will not find to be simply a moral law unless it is also a law of nature... Heraclitus will declare: "The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of Justice, will find him out."
The Erinyes will hunt down the sun just as they hunted down Orestes; just think of these cords which unite man with the elements of nature, this tragedy that is in nature and in man at the same time, this intimacy.
I can't rate the translation. I'm guessing Kaiser was aiming for accuracy in conveying meaning rather than sound, as just sounding out the words in Greek on the facing pages produced a very different rhythm and syllabification than the English. The translator mentioned that he consulted extensively with the author during the process so I would assume it is conceptually satisfactory at the very least. I will try a different translator (Edmund Keeley seems to come up most frequently) next and see how that compares.
The end notes also contain some quite interesting information. If you read this, as I hope you will, and find a line particularly mystifying, look at the end and see if a reference is explicated there. Some may be obvious to you, as they were to me (I'm familiar with the Greek pantheon and most of the more important myths, so I know who Hecate and the Graiae and Proteus are) but others turned out to reference specific lines of ancient writers, which I didn't catch even though I'd read some of them, or Greek cultural practices such as divination on the Feast of St John, which I certainly wouldn't have understood on my own.
In short, I do recommend reading the translator's Foreward and notes as well as the poems.
Much as I'd like to continue transcribing all the commentary and all the poems, too, there is not space enough, or time on my part. I'll leave you with the final poem from this collection.
Now,
with the molten lead of divination,
with the shimmering of the summer sea,
the nakedness of the whole of life;
and the passing and the stopping,
the bending and the darting,
the lips, the caressed skin--
everything wants to burn.
As the pine tree at high noon,
overcome with resin,
hurries to give birth to flames
and endures the pangs no longer --
call the children to gather the ashes
and sow them.
What is gone is rightly gone.
And whatever is not yet gone
must be burned
in this noon when the sun is nailed
to the heart of centrifoliate rose.
On Stage
Summer Solstice
This collection of three sets of poems is really excellent.
The middle one, "On Stage," was me least favorite, but I am entirely willing to believe that this is due to my lack of familiarity with Greek theatrical practice and tropes. The translator, Walter Kaiser, mentions in the introduction how difficult it was to convey cultural and mythical elements that would have been entirely clear to Greeks but not apparent at all to others, and also cogently points out some differences in relation with the natural world as experienced by those of different climes.
It is not merely that our sun is more pallid than his or that we in the north seek the sun in summer while Greeks seek the shade. Perhaps one can come closer to its meaning for Seferis if one recalls that the tragedies of English drama take place at midnight, whereas those of Greek drama reach their catastrophe at high noon.
You are playing with me, sun;
and yet, this is not a dance:
so much nakedness
is almost blood,
or some wild forest;
and then --
For Seferis, the Greek sun is this ultimate paradox, both life-giver and death-bringer, desired and feared, "angelic" and "black." "You stare into the sun, then you are lost in darkness." Kaiser goes on to quote from a letter in which Seferis wrote to George Katsimbalis, this alternation of Hubris and Ate, which one will not find to be simply a moral law unless it is also a law of nature... Heraclitus will declare: "The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of Justice, will find him out."
The Erinyes will hunt down the sun just as they hunted down Orestes; just think of these cords which unite man with the elements of nature, this tragedy that is in nature and in man at the same time, this intimacy.
I can't rate the translation. I'm guessing Kaiser was aiming for accuracy in conveying meaning rather than sound, as just sounding out the words in Greek on the facing pages produced a very different rhythm and syllabification than the English. The translator mentioned that he consulted extensively with the author during the process so I would assume it is conceptually satisfactory at the very least. I will try a different translator (Edmund Keeley seems to come up most frequently) next and see how that compares.
The end notes also contain some quite interesting information. If you read this, as I hope you will, and find a line particularly mystifying, look at the end and see if a reference is explicated there. Some may be obvious to you, as they were to me (I'm familiar with the Greek pantheon and most of the more important myths, so I know who Hecate and the Graiae and Proteus are) but others turned out to reference specific lines of ancient writers, which I didn't catch even though I'd read some of them, or Greek cultural practices such as divination on the Feast of St John, which I certainly wouldn't have understood on my own.
In short, I do recommend reading the translator's Foreward and notes as well as the poems.
Much as I'd like to continue transcribing all the commentary and all the poems, too, there is not space enough, or time on my part. I'll leave you with the final poem from this collection.
Now,
with the molten lead of divination,
with the shimmering of the summer sea,
the nakedness of the whole of life;
and the passing and the stopping,
the bending and the darting,
the lips, the caressed skin--
everything wants to burn.
As the pine tree at high noon,
overcome with resin,
hurries to give birth to flames
and endures the pangs no longer --
call the children to gather the ashes
and sow them.
What is gone is rightly gone.
And whatever is not yet gone
must be burned
in this noon when the sun is nailed
to the heart of centrifoliate rose.
January 31, 2016
I was admittedly preoccupied while reading the majority of this, so take my impressions with a grain of salt. I enjoyed the introduction to the text. It really makes you think about how much you can "understand" literature from other countries. Don't get me wrong, I read this collection and understood it. The introduction just made me aware of the intricacies and what I could be missing.
The poetry itself was good. Topically, it was shocking - there was some unexpected violence. It was interesting seeing glimpses of how ancient Greece affected people living there in modern times. Themes include life and death, pretty typical stuff.
The poetry itself was good. Topically, it was shocking - there was some unexpected violence. It was interesting seeing glimpses of how ancient Greece affected people living there in modern times. Themes include life and death, pretty typical stuff.
June 10, 2017
"Encore un peu / Et nous verrons les amandiers fleurir / Les marbres briller au soleil / La mer, les vagues qui déferlent. // Encore un peu / Elevons-nous un peu plus haut."
September 3, 2020
"You are playing with me, sun;
and yet, this is not a dance:
so much nakedness
is almost blood,
or some wild forest;
and then—"
and yet, this is not a dance:
so much nakedness
is almost blood,
or some wild forest;
and then—"
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews