I recall visiting a site years ago in a Greek countryside (the name escapes me), high up in a hilly region, where Germans made Greek partisan-fighters look in the direction of their villages before shooting them.
The place in Conrad's comment could well be Kalavryta but there were many such places i.e., Distomo in Central Greece, Aetos in Messenias,etc. where entire villages were burned and villagers killed as reprisal measures.
Efcharisto gia tin apantisi sas. Eziza dio chronia stin Ellada kai pola akousa gia tin kalavryta kai gia tous nazi pou eskotosan tous antres tis polis. Ala nai, dikio echete.
Thank you for your answer. I lived in Greece for two years and I heard a lot about Kalavryta and the Nazis who killed the men of that city. But yes, you are right.
You are to be congratulated on being sensitive enough to have listened and heard about what happened to Greece at the hands of the German occupation forces; others have spent ten times the amount of time you spent and have no idea of what happened back then.
Kirie Zambara: Thank you for your answer. The fact that I learnt Modern Greek made me know many things about Greek history & culture. I was fortunate enough to know many interesting and brilliant people who told me stories about Greece. I've read excerpts from Ioanna Tsatsou's "Fylla Katochis" ("Journal of the Occupation") and the whole "Kydathineon 9", books in which she writes about many episodes of Greek people fighting against the Nazis. Very moving testimonies. I speak the languague, therefore I feel its background. And I am fighting to keep the language in my mind, I don't have many opportunities to speak it. I think in part I have become a translator from Modern Greek into Spanish for that purpose.
Even more congratulations! Having read Ioanna Tsatsou, you're probably well-informed about the work of her brother, George Seferis. Has much of his poetry been translated into Spanish?
All his poetry has been translated into Spanish. Also, his novel "Eksi nichtes sthn Akropolh", many of his essays and a selection of his diaries. I'd love to get involved in the translation of the seven volumes.
His work is very much respected and read here in Tenerife, Canary Islands, by several poets. Recently, the great translator Isabel García Gálvez published a translation of "Tría krifá poihmata": http://www.poesiadigital.es/index.php?cmd=critica&id=216
I have translated Ioanna Tsatsou's "H Poihsh kai o Adhs" and I am trying to get it published somewhere here in Spain. Also I have translated Seferis' "Oi gates t' Aï Nikola" (if you want to have a look at it and also at a poem by Tsatsou, both are published here, on the blog of the Brazilian poet and translator Érico Nogueira: http://ericonogueira.blogspot.com/
Kyrie Zambara, from what I have read about your work, you mostly write in English. Is that so? I would like to read your books and translate some of your poems, either from Greek or from English.
I'm impressed with your fervent interest in Modern Greek literature and honored that you'd like to translate some of mine. However, rather than continuing this correspondence via the comment stream, it might be better to exchange email addresses and we can take it from there. Mine is vazambam@otenet.gr
I'd like much to be in touch with Mario Domínguez Parra, to talk about his translations of David Jones into Spanish; and with both he and you, Vassilis, about the prospect of publishing some of your work in the English-language journals of poetry and translation I work with in Boston, or about commissioning an essay on the history of katharevousa.
It is a genuine pleasure to have been following your various exchanges. zakbos@gmail.com.
Well said!
ReplyDeleteI recall visiting a site years ago in a Greek countryside (the name escapes me), high up in a hilly region, where Germans made Greek partisan-fighters look in the direction of their villages before shooting them.
Powerful memories. Your poems about them, equally so. Thank you for these.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Conrad--The Germans in your comment: talk about overkill.
ReplyDeleteAnnie,
Well, I'm not so sure my poems have the same effect, but thanks so much for saying so.
May that place be KALÁVRITA?
ReplyDeleteMario,
ReplyDeleteThe place in Conrad's comment could well be Kalavryta but there were many such places i.e., Distomo in Central Greece, Aetos in Messenias,etc. where entire villages were burned and villagers killed as reprisal measures.
Yasas, Kirie Zambara:
ReplyDeleteEfcharisto gia tin apantisi sas. Eziza dio chronia stin Ellada kai pola akousa gia tin kalavryta kai gia tous nazi pou eskotosan tous antres tis polis. Ala nai, dikio echete.
Thank you for your answer. I lived in Greece for two years and I heard a lot about Kalavryta and the Nazis who killed the men of that city. But yes, you are right.
Mario,
ReplyDeleteYou are to be congratulated on being sensitive enough to have listened and heard about what happened to Greece at the hands of the German occupation forces; others have spent ten times the amount of time you spent and have no idea of what happened back then.
Kirie Zambara:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your answer. The fact that I learnt Modern Greek made me know many things about Greek history & culture. I was fortunate enough to know many interesting and brilliant people who told me stories about Greece. I've read excerpts from Ioanna Tsatsou's "Fylla Katochis" ("Journal of the Occupation") and the whole "Kydathineon 9", books in which she writes about many episodes of Greek people fighting against the Nazis. Very moving testimonies. I speak the languague, therefore I feel its background. And I am fighting to keep the language in my mind, I don't have many opportunities to speak it. I think in part I have become a translator from Modern Greek into Spanish for that purpose.
Kalinichta sas.
Even more congratulations! Having read Ioanna Tsatsou, you're probably well-informed about the work of her brother, George Seferis. Has much of his poetry been translated into Spanish?
ReplyDeleteAll his poetry has been translated into Spanish. Also, his novel "Eksi nichtes sthn Akropolh", many of his essays and a selection of his diaries. I'd love to get involved in the translation of the seven volumes.
ReplyDeleteHis work is very much respected and read here in Tenerife, Canary Islands, by several poets. Recently, the great translator Isabel García Gálvez published a translation of "Tría krifá poihmata": http://www.poesiadigital.es/index.php?cmd=critica&id=216
I have translated Ioanna Tsatsou's "H Poihsh kai o Adhs" and I am trying to get it published somewhere here in Spain. Also I have translated Seferis' "Oi gates t' Aï Nikola" (if you want to have a look at it and also at a poem by Tsatsou, both are published here, on the blog of the Brazilian poet and translator Érico Nogueira: http://ericonogueira.blogspot.com/
Kyrie Zambara, from what I have read about your work, you mostly write in English. Is that so? I would like to read your books and translate some of your poems, either from Greek or from English.
I'm impressed with your fervent interest in Modern Greek literature and honored that you'd like to translate some of mine. However, rather than continuing this correspondence via the comment stream, it might be better to exchange email addresses and we can take it from there. Mine is vazambam@otenet.gr
ReplyDeleteps. Thanks for coming aboard as a follower.
I'd like much to be in touch with Mario Domínguez Parra, to talk about his translations of David Jones into Spanish; and with both he and you, Vassilis, about the prospect of publishing some of your work in the English-language journals of poetry and translation I work with in Boston, or about commissioning an essay on the history of katharevousa.
ReplyDeleteIt is a genuine pleasure to have been following your various exchanges. zakbos@gmail.com.