Giorgos Seferis

February 29, 1900, Mr.. - September 20, 1971
. Greek poet Giorgos Seferis (real name Georgios Stilianu Seferiadis) was born in Smyrna (modern Izmir, . Turkey) and was the eldest of three children in a family lawyer and Stelios Seferiadisa nee Despina Tenekdis, . daughter of a wealthy landowner,
. With Father. was a supporter of the independence of Greece and worked closely with the leader of the national liberation movement Eleftherios Venizelos, after the one in 1909. became prime minister.
Competing with his father, who wrote amateur poetry in demotic, live spoken Greek, with. began to write poetry at the age of thirteen years. In 1914, Mr.. family moved to Athens, as after the First World War, relations between Turkey and Greece in connection with the destabilization of the situation in Asia Minor had deteriorated further. In Athens On. goes to school, studying classical Greek. The future poet enjoys the history of ancient Greece, hours walking on the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum.
When father and. I went in 1918. to Paris to study international law, Giorgos went with him and entered the Sorbonne, where he studied jurisprudence, read the French symbolists, Homer and the Greek poets who have written in demotic. Although at this time. has written in French, he still preferred the demotic, which, from his point of view, sounds more natural than 'kafarevusa' artificially archaic form of the Greek language taught in schools and used in official documents. His early poetry appeared in 1921. a short lived periodical 'Altar'. In the same year with. exam in law and began working on his thesis.
The following year, in response to the attack on the Greek Ionian islands, the Turkish troops razed Smyrna. The destruction of his native city 'was a defining moment in the life of S., - later wrote an American scholar Walter Kaiser. - As a result, the poet constantly feels restless, without a homeland, without roots'.
Despite the fact that without family and home with. feels lonely in Paris, he remains in France and is finalizing a PhD in 1924. After a year of additional training in London, where he continues to write poetry, with. returns to Athens on Christmas Eve 1925. and begins to prepare for exams for the title of public official, then next year, gets the post in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The first collection of poems with. 'Stanzas' was published in l931, Mr.. private publishing house edition of 150 copies. The title also meant "a combination of poetry 'and' turning point ', which, according to the critic Anthony Zahareasa, symbolic,' because the book has opened a new trend in Greek poetry '. Rejecting the rhetorical excesses of their predecessors, S. joined economical clear strofiku complex stepped rhymes and imagery of the French Symbolists, especially Paul Valц?ry.
Shortly after the release of 'stanzas' N. was sent to London - first assistant to the consul, and then - consul. While in London, he wrote poems 'Pond', which was published in Athens in 1932, at the same time with. translates into Greek verse mc. Eliot. In 1935. S. cooperates with the 'New Literary Review' editable George Katsimbalisom, converges with a group of writers who shared his views on modernism and folk dialect.
. Starting with 'mythical history' (1936), there is a 'fundamental change of style' of the poet - so consider him interpreters Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
. New Style C. 'is much freer and much more natural'. In the 'mythical history' the poet reflects on the past and present, of exile and homeland. In 24 parts of the poem are travelers: modern exiles and - simultaneously - the heroes 'Odyssey'. Using these characters, the twins, the author, as noted by Keeley, has ensured that the 'myth suddenly comes to life, ancient and modern form metaphor without any tension or contradiction'.
In 1936, Mr.. while on vacation with. Zannu met with Maria, whom he married five years later, after she divorced her first husband. The next two years. is a consul in Albania, then became a spokesperson Foreign Ministry of Greece.
When in 1941. German troops invaded the Balkan peninsula, with. together with the Greek government in exile was at first in Crete, and then in Egypt, South Africa and Italy. In Egypt,. published a collection of essays 'inflight magazine II' (1944) and a collection of poems, which includes works created in exile. In Athens the government returned 18 October 1944
Shortly afterwards, the Greek civil war broke out, and the government headed by Archbishop Damaskinos, where P. 1944 to 1945. served as director of the political bureau. In the summer of 1946,. He spent two months on the island of Paros, where he stood poluzatonuvshy warship 'Blackbird', inspired P. write a poem with the same name.
Since the first publication. English has become a collection of 'King Asine and Other Poems' ( 'The King of Assine and Other Poems'), translated into English prose writer and critic Rex Uernerom and published in 1948. In the same year with. going for two years in Ankara advisor to the Greek Embassy. For the first time in many years, he travels to Smyrna. This trip was excruciating for C. 'I do not have the courage to return, - the poet writes in his diary - because nobody can make a similar trip twice'.
Since 1951, Mr.. S. worked two years in London, First Counselor, meets with mc. Elliot, from 1953 to 1956. He - the Greek Ambassador in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, often in Cyprus, which supports the movement against British rule. Being the representative of Greece to the United Nations (1956 ... 1957), C. strongly supports the independence of Cyprus, which the country received in 1960
After a year's stay in Athens in the second position as head of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with. returned to London, this time as ambassador, where given an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge and prizes 'Foyle' for poetry. Although English translations of his poems have long started to appear in British magazines and literary reviews, C. became widely known in England only in 1961, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrarda included in the anthology "Six poets of modern Greece '(' Six Poets of Modern Greece ').
In 1962. S. resigned and settled in Athens, and in 1963. he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 'for the outstanding lyrical works filled with admiration for the world of the ancient Greeks'. 'Poetic Works With. not too much - said a member of the Swedish Academy Anders Esterling at the awards ceremony - but because of their stylistic and ideological identity, and beauty of language, they became a symbol of incorruptible Hellenic life-affirmation '.
. 'For me, it is important - said
. in the acceptance speech - that the Swedes decided to reward the poet, even when the poet - the representative of a small nation '. In his Nobel lecture with. talked about the Greek literary revival. Summarizing the differences between supporters of the traditional language and vernacular dialect, the poet said, what drew him in his youth demotic language. Anyone who supports this initiative, "said S. 'stands in my mind a man who for centuries had been shackled, but finally dropped them and straightened his shoulders."
1968. S. holds as a research fellow of the Institute for Basic Research in Princeton (New Jersey). Being in the U.S., he speaks frequently with the reading of his poems, but refuses to comment on the political situation in Greece, which came to power a year ago, the military junta recently expelled from the country's monarch. Nevertheless, on his return to Athens in 1969. S. publicly expressed their opposition to the dictatorship, thus consolidating its popularity among young people.
With. died in September 1971. the Evangelical Hospital in Athens. According to Keeley, thousands of young people marched in funeral processions, shouting: 'immortal! Freedom! Elections! " - And singing the verses of the late poet.
. 'Few countries have such a tragic history in the XX century. As Greece, - noted American critic James Goodman - and none of the poets failed to express the suffering of the Greek deeper-Giorgos Seferis'
. However, with. not only expressed the aspirations of their nation, but still, according to Keeley, 'managed to convey the poetry of every individual'. More importantly, said Keeley, 'his ability to comprehend a metaphor as any phenomenon that has a direct relation to', and 'to transform personal experience into a metaphor, which determines the character of the era'. Above all, C. possessed a true poetic voice. Poetic voice with. differ astonishing purity, which comes only with complete sincerity of language, - wrote the English critic Peter Levy - in his poetry there is not a single false note. "
Talented diplomat, C. At the same time managed to create a work of comparable value with verses such European values as Eliot, William Butler Yeats and some other classics of European poetry. 'I just made myself without any help, - wrote C. once in his diary. - I am fully aware that in our time the poet is not expecting fame and oblivion. But this does not mean that I will depart from their beliefs. Never '.