The Greek-Australian University and poet, Dr. Nikos Trakakis translated into English the poetry collection “Autumn Manuscripts” by the Greek poet Tassos Livaditis. It is the second poetry collection by T. Livaditis that Trakakis has translated, with the other being “The blind man with the lamp”, published in 2014. Three more translations are expected to be published in 2021.
Dr. Nikos Trakakis, originally from Crete, was born and raised in Melbourne. He works at the Australian Catholic University and specializes in the philosophy of religion. He has written a series of books on philosophy, religion as well as translations. He also writes poetry, with his most recent being “From Dusk to Dawn” (2012). Dr. Trakakis has also edited “Southern Sun, Aegean Light: Poetry of Second-Generation Greek-Australians”, a poetry collection by second-generation Greek Australians.
Tassos Livaditis was born in Athens in 1922. In 1940 he enrolled in the Law School of the University of Athens, but at the onset of the German occupation of Greece, in 1941, he abandoned his studies and joined the Resistance and the National Liberation Front’s youth organization EPON. After the liberation, in 1944, he continued to be politically active in the Left, which led to his exile from 1945 to 1951.
Livaditis, first appeared to the Greek public in 1946, through the columns of the magazine Elefthera Grammata. In 1952 he published his first poetic collection titled “Battle on the edge of the night”.
His literary work can be divided into 3 phases: the “revolutionary”, the “symbolic-allegorical” and the “existential”, works that have left an indelible mark on Modern Greek Literature. His lyrics were set to music by Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Loizos. Tassos Livaditis died in Athens on October 30, 1988. After his death, his handwritten anecdotal poems were published under the title “Autumn Manuscripts”.
Time
Then he spoke about some key.
‘How incomprehensible it is to live,’ he said.
In an adjoining room a beautiful woman was engrossed in the mirror.
Finally he talked about a seashore, an enigma and a sick sleeping child.
‘And then what happened?’ I asked.
I didn’t notice that thirty years had already gone by.
Source: https://int.ert.gr