Review
Dionysios Solomos, The Free Besieged and other poems,
Translated by Peter Thompson, Roderick Beaton,
Peter Colaclides, Michael Green and David Ricks
Edited with an introduction by Peter Mackridge
Shoestring Press, 2000
The collection brings together a selection of poems by Greece’s national poet, Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857). The study of European Romanticism may find in Solomos’ case an exponent of German thought and a cultivated verse informed both by the Greek tradition of fifteensyllable verse, folk songs, and by poets such as Novalis and Dante. Educated in Italy, he studied law and spent his mature years in Corfu. He was a contemporary of Manzoni, Hugo and Heine, and some parallels can be drawn between elements of his compositions and poetry by Coleridge. A number of his poems make reference to Missolonghi, the place where Byron died and which is connected to uprisings and resistance to Turkish sieges. He took the sufferings and afflictions of these people as his subject matter. His work, unlike that of other poets, remained incomplete and unpublished. The lyrical character of certain parts of his compositions suggests a remarkable expressivity – this is some of the best verse written in Greek. Nature and freedom, death and religion, love, anger and fascination structure the recurrent themes of Solomos’ poems. His contact with German philosophy and poetry was by means of Italian translation. Bicultural and bilingual Solomos
composed his first conception of each poem in Italian, and then proceeded to work the verses up in Greek. ‘The Cretan’ (translated by Roderick Beaton) appears to refer to a survivor from Crete who left the island having lost all his family in the uprisings against the Turks. The narrator of the poem deals with time and eternity, loss and memory. In the case of ‘Free Besieged’ (translated by Peter Thompson), Solomos worked on various versions between 1833 and 1847. The poem refers to events in Missolonghi and is set during the last days of the siege. It has been argued that the poem represents the triumph of the human spirit over physical adversity. ‘The Woman of Zakynthos’ (1826-1833; translated by Michael Green and Peter Colaclides) is here presented as a poem in numbered verses. The narrator is a certain Hieromonk (priest-monk)
Dionysios. The work is considered an allegory, more of a satire à clef. The poem ‘Shark’ (translated by David Ricks) is based on a real event. In 1847 a young soldier from the British garrison in Corfu was killed by a shark. In the poem the swimmer experiences a mystical union with the universe followed by his own death. ‘Carmen Saeculare’ (translated by Roderick Beaton) was written in both Italian and Greek. Interpreters of this poem have associated it with theosophy and notions of art. The Greek poet’s work was published by his friends who assisted the main editor Polylas in the first posthumous publication of Solomos’ poetry. The present collection makes use of different editions of the poems. And the introduction by Peter Mackridge discusses Solomos’ work in the context of European Romanticism, the practices followed by other editors of the poet’s work (published in Greek) and instances of bilingualism. The selection brings together some established translations of poems by Solomos and could be very useful in discussing aspects of European Romanticism, in comparative contexts. In a broader context the volume could be of interest to those studying intellectual movements in the nineteenth century, because Solomos, like many of his contemporaries, showed an interest in the creative sciences of his time (including psychology) which is clearly reflected in the poems published in this volume. His choice of diction and the refined lyricism of the best of his poems that have reached us through single verses, together with various fragments indicative of the poet’s attempts to restylize existing versions in Greek according to his preferred mode of composition, suggest that Solomos continued experimenting with his versification and rhythmical prose throughout his years of poetry writing. This constant process of finding a poetic language and a voice in Greek in a dialogue with other languages and poetry traditions may bring Solomos in line with our modern sensibilities in respect of intertexts and enigmatic narratives.
Page(s) 274-275
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