Life Immovable, First Part

by Kostis Palamas, Aristides Evangelus Phoutrides (Translator)

Kostes/Kostis Palamas (1859-1943) was a Greek poet and journalist. He published his first collection of verses, The Songs of My Fatherland, in 1886. He wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyros Samaras. He has been called the "national" poet of Greece and was closely associated with the struggle to rid Modern Greece of the "purist" language and with political liberalism. He dominated literary life for 30 or more years and greatly influenced the entire political-intellectual climate of his time. Romain Rolland considered him the greatest poet of Europe and he was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for poetry but never received it. His most important poem The Twelve Words of the Gypsy (1907) is a poetical-philosophical journey. His "Gypsy" is a free thinking, intellectual rebel. He is a Greek Gypsy, in a post classical, post-Byzantine Greek world. He explores work, love, art, country, history, religion and science, keenly aware of his roots and of the contradictions between his classical and Christian heritage.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Kostis Palamas (Greek: Κωστής Παλαμάς) was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School (or Palamian School, or Second Athenian School) along with Georgios Drosinis, Nikos Kampas, Ioannis Polemis.