TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Punctuation, spelling and obvious printer's errors have been corrected.Footnotes from the original text have been collated at the end of thise-book and references to them have been amended according to the newfootnote numbering used in this e-book.
KOSTES PALAMAS
LIFE IMMOVABLE
FIRST PART
TRANSLATED BY ARISTIDES E. PHOUTRIDES
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1919
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
TO MRS. EVELETH WINSLOW
THIS VOLUME OF TRANSLATIONS IS DEDICATED
AS A TOKEN OF HERAPPRECIATION
OF THE POET'S WORK
PREFACE
The translations contained in the present volume were undertaken sincethe beginning of the great war when communication with Greece andaccess to my sources of information were always difficult and at timesimpossible. In hastening to present them to the English speakingpublic before discussing them with the poet himself and my friends inAthens, I am only yielding to the urgent requests of friends on bothsides of the Atlantic who have regarded my delay with justifiableimpatience. I am thoroughly conscious of the shortcomings that werebound to result from the above difficulties and from the interruptioncaused by my two years' service in the American army; and were it notfor the encouragement and loyal assistance of those interested in mywork it would have been impossible for me to bring it at all beforethe public. My earnest effort has been to be as faithful to the poetas possible, and for this reason I have not attempted to render rime,a dangerous obstacle to a natural expression of the poet's thought anddiction. But I hope that the critics will judge my work as that of amere pioneer. I know there is value in the theme; and if this value ismade sufficiently evident to arouse the interest of poetry lovers inthe achievements of contemporary Greece I shall have reaped my bestreward.
I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Christos N. Lambrakis of Athensfor the information which he has always been willing to furnish meregarding various dark points in the work translated; to Mrs. EvelethWinslow of Washington for many valuable suggestions and criticisms;and above all to Professor Clifford H. Moore of Harvard Universityfor the interest he has shown in the work and the readiness with whichhe has found time in the midst of his duties to take charge of mymanuscript in my absence and to assist in seeing it through the press.
Aristides E. Phoutrides.
Washington, D.C.
July 7, 1919.