Speak-Greek Discussion Forum - Not logged in
Forum speak-greek.co.uk Help Search Register Login
Previous Next Up Topic Reference Information / Books / Modern Greek Literature (2892 hits)
- By Renee1717 Flag: us Date 2007-10-02 01:04
Does anyone know of any good Greek fiction, like from the 1800's?  There are only a couple books of Greek literature that I've ever found in English and a lot of them are more recent or are poetry.  Can anyone help?
        Ευχαριστώ,
        Ρενέ
Parent By miv Flag: gr Date 2007-10-13 10:26
Moschov Selim by Georgios Vizyinos is a very good literature book. Don't try to read the original version in Greek because he used the scholar idiom (katharevousa) and it's very difficult, sometimes even to modern Greeks.
Parent - By Αναφανδόν Flag: gr Date 2007-11-10 14:22
it is difficult to find books of 1800's  due to the fact that Greece didn't exist then!  As greeks were under of the turkish bondage,  try to find books with poems from 1880 and over like Kavafis (Κωνσταντῖνος Καβάφης) οr Γεώργιος Βιζυηνός. here a Kavafi's poem (but it is pretty difficult!) :
Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μεν' η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.

Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωϊά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους,
να σταματήσεις σ' εμπορεία Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν' αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ' έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά,
σε πόλεις Αιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ' τους σπουδασμένους.

Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί ειν' ο προορισμός σου.
Αλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει
και γέρος πια ν' αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στο δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.

Η Ιθάκη σ'έδωσε τ' ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.

Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δε σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες οι Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.
Φλαττοθρατταραττοθράτ
Parent - By Renee1717 Flag: us Date 2007-11-11 03:45
Sigh.  It is difficult (though not as difficult as the poem you posted:( ).  Weren't they liberated by the end of the 1820's (perhaps I should brush up on some of my books on Greek history!)?  I have some poems of Καβάφης, but none by Γεώργιος Βιζυηνός that you both mentioned.  I wasn't able to find anything by him in English.  On a side note, does anyone have anything to say about translations of people's names such as Καβάφης=Cavafy?  It seems the least they could do would be to write it as Kavafy or Kavafi.  Now I'm just venting one of my pet peeves :-)  I like his "Barbarians" poem, but I can't think of the name of it.
    Anyhow, σας ευχαριστώ για την βοήθειά σας.
Ρενέ
Parent - By Κεβ Flag: us Date 2007-11-11 17:35
In the case of κ. Καβάφη, I believe "Cavafy" is the transcription he himself chose while living in England, so it's his own fault! :-)

Here's a nice site with Cavafy poems in Greek and English translations, including Περιμένοντας τους βαρβάρους. ;-)

Here's some works by Βιζυηνό, without English.  This site is actually quite spiffy, and worth a little time navigating around on to see what else is on there.
Parent By miv Flag: gr Date 2007-11-12 20:02
About the name, he is known abroad as Cavafy, because he lived in Alexandria, which was french-dominated those times, at least on a cultural level.
About Vizyinos, I said it's impossible to read him. Last years ago Athens Academy proposed a translation of his works into the Demotic Greek, but some refused because it is real that they would lose their value. So, translation cannot offer you so much.
Parent - By Αναφανδόν Flag: gr Date 2007-11-14 22:27
A nice one of Βιζυηνός is <<Το αμάρτημα της μητρός μου>> (My mother's sin)
try to read it  for exercise and when you have dark spot ask for help.
Φλαττοθρατταραττοθράτ
Parent - By Κεβ Flag: us Date 2007-11-15 02:06
Wow, that's some old-fashioned Greek indeed!  I'm going to give it a try and see how far I get. :-)
Parent - By phanghor Flag: gr Date 2007-11-15 09:41
Once you're done, drop me a line to tell me what it says so I can understand it.
Parent By Κεβ Flag: us Date 2007-11-16 04:22
Αλήθεια;;  It's not that bad, is it?  Sure it's not the easiest thing I've ever read--there are plenty of archaic elements to the grammar and vocabulary--but it's not completely incomprehensible.  Do I have an advantage as a non-native speaker?  It's all Greek to me, as they say. Why should any dialect be any trickier for me to puzzle out than any other!

Anyway, I'm a few paragraphs into it now, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions later on.  I'll open a thread. :-)
Parent By Αναφανδόν Flag: gr Date 2007-11-14 22:36
about the name Kabafis Kabafys or Kavafis or Kavafys or Cabafis or Cabafys or Cavafis or Cavafys her what is going on:
When we are writing greek with Latin characters there are two ways:
1. Greelish
2. Greeklish
____________________

Greelish is when we write a word as it sounds. For example : ''tiri'' (cheese) instead of ''tyri''
Greeklish is when we right a word with orthografy. For example : ''tyri'' instead of ''tiri''

Φλαττοθρατταραττοθράτ
Previous Next Up Topic Reference Information / Books / Modern Greek Literature (2892 hits)

Powered by mwForum 2.10.1 © 1999-2006 Markus Wichitill