Life Immovable First Part   By: Kostes Palamas (1859-1943)

Punctuation, spelling and obvious printer's errors have been corrected. Footnotes from the original text have been collated at the end of this e book and references to them have been amended according to the new footnote numbering used in this e book.

[Illustration: Kostes Palamas]

KOSTES PALAMAS

LIFE IMMOVABLE FIRST PART

TRANSLATED BY ARISTIDES E. PHOUTRIDES

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR

CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1919

COPYRIGHT, 1919 HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

TO MRS. EVELETH WINSLOW

THIS VOLUME OF TRANSLATIONS IS DEDICATED AS A TOKEN OF HER APPRECIATION OF THE POET'S WORK

PREFACE

The translations contained in the present volume were undertaken since the beginning of the great war when communication with Greece and access to my sources of information were always difficult and at times impossible. In hastening to present them to the English speaking public before discussing them with the poet himself and my friends in Athens, I am only yielding to the urgent requests of friends on both sides of the Atlantic who have regarded my delay with justifiable impatience. I am thoroughly conscious of the shortcomings that were bound to result from the above difficulties and from the interruption caused by my two years' service in the American army; and were it not for the encouragement and loyal assistance of those interested in my work it would have been impossible for me to bring it at all before the public. My earnest effort has been to be as faithful to the poet as possible, and for this reason I have not attempted to render rime, a dangerous obstacle to a natural expression of the poet's thought and diction. But I hope that the critics will judge my work as that of a mere pioneer. I know there is value in the theme; and if this value is made sufficiently evident to arouse the interest of poetry lovers in the achievements of contemporary Greece I shall have reaped my best reward.

I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Christos N. Lambrakis of Athens for the information which he has always been willing to furnish me regarding various dark points in the work translated; to Mrs. Eveleth Winslow of Washington for many valuable suggestions and criticisms; and above all to Professor Clifford H. Moore of Harvard University for the interest he has shown in the work and the readiness with which he has found time in the midst of his duties to take charge of my manuscript in my absence and to assist in seeing it through the press.

ARISTIDES E. PHOUTRIDES.

WASHINGTON, D.C. July 7, 1919.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

KOSTES PALAMAS, A NEW WORLD POET LIFE IMMOVABLE, FIRST PART

TRANSLATIONS

LIFE IMMOVABLE, INTRODUCTORY POEM

FATHERLANDS

FATHERLANDS, I XII THE SONNETS EPIPHANY MAKARIA THE MARKET PLACE LOVES WHEN POLYLAS DIED TO PETROS BASILIKOS SOLDIER AND MAKER THE ATHENA RELIEF THE HUNTRESS RELIEF A FATHER'S SONG TO THE POET L. MAVILES IMAGINATION MAKARIA'S DEATH TO PALLIS FOR HIS "ILIAD" HAIL TO THE RIME

THE RETURN

DEDICATION THE TEMPLE THE HUT THE RING THE CORD GRASS FESTIVAL THE FAIRY OUT IN THE OPEN LIGHT FIRST LOVE THE MADMAN OUR HOME THE DEAD THE COMRADE RHAPSODY IDYL AT THE WINDMILL WHAT THE LAGOON SAYS PINKS RUINS PENELOPE A NEW ODE BY THE OLD ALCAEUS

FRAGMENTS FROM THE SONG TO THE SUN

IMAGINATION THE GODS MY GOD HELEN THE LYRE GIANTS' SHADOWS THE HOLY VIRGIN IN HELL SUNRISE DOUBLE SONG THE SUN BORN ON THE HEIGHTS OF PARADISE THE STRANGER AN ORPHIC HYMN THE POET KRISHNA'S WORDS THE TOWER OF THE SUN A MOURNING SONG PRAYER OF THE FIRST BORN MEN THOUGHT OF THE LAST BORN MEN MOLOCH ALL THE STARS ARROWS

VERSES OF A FAMILIAR TUNE

THE BEGINNING THE PARALYTIC ON THE RIVER'S BANK THE SIMPLE SONG THREE KISSES ISMENE THOUGHTS OF EARLY DAWN TO A MAIDEN WHO DIED TO THE SINNER A TALK WITH THE FLOWERS TO MY WIFE THE ANSWER THOUGHT THE SINNER THE END

THE PALM TREE

THE PALM TREE

INTRODUCTION

KOSTES PALAMAS[1]

A NEW WORLD POET