Baku to host Greek poetry evening

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

“SOZ” Literary Project run by the Azerbaijan Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Greece embassy in Baku will organize an event entitled Greek Poetry Evening in the capital.

Held at the Rashid Behbudov State Song Theatre, the event is scheduled for January 23 at 19.00.

A number of poems of world famous modern Greek poets such as Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis will be recited during the ceremony.

Most of them have become famous thanks to prominent Greek composers including Mikis Theodorakis, who set texts of these poets into music. Moreover, some of them will be listened to as a playback or sung by Azerbaijani singers.

All poems will be translated into Russian or Azerbaijani languages.

Entrance is free and sitting will be on a first come first serve basis.

Constantine Cavafy is widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century. He wrote 154 poems and dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. Being an avid student of history, particularly ancient civilizations, Cavafy he subjectively rendered life during the Greek and Roman empires in a great number of his poems.

The outstanding poet developed a unique method for publishing his poems. He never published a collection in book form, and refused at least two such offers. He opted to publish his poems in newspapers, periodicals and annuals and chose to circulate his verses among friends.

Greek poet George Seferis was one of the most important Greek poets of the 20th century. He was a Nobel laureate in 1963 for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture. He also had a career diplomat in Greek Foreign Service.

Odysseus Elytis was relatively unknown outside his native Greece when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1979. The poet was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece.

Elytis' poetry has marked through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages.