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Κωστής Παλαμάς

1859–1943

Kostis Palamas wrote in the Greek people actually spoke, and the warmth of that choice is what stays with you: ballads, island legends, small elegies, and long poems that move like a pageant. Start with «Συλλογές» for the folk-song voice at its most direct, or with «Ο δωδεκάλογος του Γύφτου» if you want the same warmth turned into a stubborn argument about freedom, labour and art. What these books share is a generous, exact way of looking at ordinary lives and the things he loved, and a poet who trusted the language of the street and the island to carry serious feeling.

Feels like awe, memory and freedom.

Start with Συλλογές.

Palamaς published his first collection, Τραγούδια της πατρίδος μου, in 1886; he spent his working life as secretary of the University of Athens and wrote the words of the Olympic Hymn.

He is ten and holds his prize; a girl across the room is crying, and only now does he understand why.

Θυμούμαι τη λαχταριστήν ημέρα μας· τους τοίχουςγεμάτους χάρτες, ζωγραφιές, και γνωμικά και στίχους.Και δάφνες και μυρτιές παντού ριγμένες άνω κάτου,το λόγο του δασκάλου μας με τα ελληνικά του,και των μητέρων τις ματιές και των παιδιών την έννοιακαι το Δεσπότη σοβαρό με τ’ άσπρα του τα γένιαμε το βραβείο το χρυσό να με βραβεύει εμένα,και να το παίρνω τρέμοντας με μάγουλ’ αναμμένα.Τότε —μου φαίνετ’ η στιγμή αυτή πως είναι τώρα—εκέρωσε η μονάκριβη μικρούλα η ασπροφόρα,κι εξέφυγε απ’ τα μάτια της ένα μεγάλο δάκρυ.Από το πλάι μου γοργά τραβήχθη σε μιαν άκρη,και κρύβοντας στα χέρια της σφιχτά το πρόσωπό τηςπικρόκλαιγε κι επνίγονταν στη ζήλια η αθωότης.
— Συλλογές, Κωστής Παλαμάς (1886)

Books by Κωστής Παλαμάς

Συλλογές

Κωστής Παλαμάς, 1886

The great popular poet of modern Greece: ballads, island legends and small elegies, in the language people actually spoke. Look for the human gesture inside the folk song. At his best there is no one warmer and more exact about the things he loved. Still, some verse is more pastiche than lived experience, but the ambition is real. But the book has real ballads and real feeling, and a warm, generous voice, and Palamaς is a key figure in Greek letters. Read him as a poet who came from the folk tradition. Read him for the ballads and the small elegies. In the end, you get a sense of the poet's world and a few lines to underline. That is the honest case for this book,

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