A Greek Ballad: Selected Poems

Description

A stunning collection that draws from four decades of verse by one of modern Greece’s most lauded poets This is the first English-language collection of work by the renowned Greek poet Michális Ganás. Originally from a remote village on the northwest border of Greece, Ganás witnessed the Greek Civil War as a young child, and was taken into enforced exile in Eastern Europe with his family. Weaving together subtle references to the events and places that have defined his life’s story, Ganás’s terse and technically accomplished poems are a combination of folklore, autobiography, and recent history. Whether describing the mountains of his youth or the difficulties of acclimation in Athens of the 1960s and 1970s, Ganás’s writing is infused with striking and original imagery inspired by love, memory, and loss. Featuring expert translations—made in collaboration with Ganás himself—by David Connolly and Joshua Barley, this volume also includes a scholarly introduction to the poet’s life and work. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Introduction A Greek Ballad From Upstanding Supper (1978) Price Paid Greece, You Know . . . Unburied Lost Familiarities Good Moon . . . Of Love What an Orphaned Sea . . . Song Untitled Disarmament Times Sleep Blessing Overnight Stop M.I.G Silent Blows Patrol From Instants National Road Blind Gravity Fear, the Broad-Leafed Plant From Black Stones (1980) Christ Is Risen M.G., 1888–1979 The Blue That Enfolds You At the River Ascension The Wild and the Tame I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X From Steps Backward Dusk Many Steps Backward In Haftia Lay Me to Rest Drowned So Many Years From Instants From Dugouts From Glimmering Yánnena (1989) I: To Yannis Maravas II: To Christos Bravos III: To Georgia Papageorgiou IV: To Philippos Vlachos V: To Yannis Dallas. To Tatsis Apostolidis VI: To Sotiris Sorongas VII: To Michalis Pieris. To Diana and Dimitris A Christmas Tale: To my father and my children, To my siblings Diptych I: To Eleni Stefanaki II: To Zyranna Zateli Postscript: Poem at Midnight, To Nassos Theofilou In Memory of K. G. Karyotakis, To G. P. Savidis Every Morning, To Markos Meskos Personal, To Poppy Red Cross Hospital, To my Mother Amnesia, To Sotiris Pastakas In Abundant Anonymity, To Stamatis Dagdelenis The Blackbird, To the company of that Wednesday, 5/18/88 From Ballad (1993) From Shorts (2000) Blackbird Blackbird 2 Exit With the Water Accident at Work Hair Loss Postscript to a Reading On Poetry 2 From The Smoker’s Sleep (2003) From Wormwood (2012) “O unborn elder” “A wingless rock in the void” “These people here, they don’t” “Horse’s head stoops to drink” “Rags the mountains in the frost” One Moment, Nassos The Wind Is Blowing Invocation Chronology