The Axion Esti

What can I say for a Nobel prize winner Poet and his masterpiece? Probably far too little. For me Axion Esti defines Greece in the past the present and the future. The stones, the sea, the light, the people, the War, the struggles, the future....

MASTERPIECE

It is tricky to translate poetry, the title means: "it is worthy" but it is in ancient greek. Ancient greek was a condensed and poetic language.Elytis was a a poet very much ahead of his time. Modern poetry, that is abstract and reminds more of a novel than poetry. The main "weapon" ("each to his own weapons") of Elytis is that he is an optimist ("regardless what they say our life is in our hands", according to his Nobel acceptance speech). Elytis is the poet of the Aegean Sea, a sea that is full of life and sun, vibrant and inviting.Above all, Elytis appeals to the senses, all of them.