The Fly.
Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live
Or if I die.
– From Songs of […]

Congrats to thalassa_mikra for correctly answering the inaugural Quiz of the Day!

The Russian writer who attended a Greek school was indeed Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
As I mentioned, Greek daily Ta Nea posed the quiz and answered it with the following extract from a letter sent in 1900 to Agathoklis Konstantinides, who approached the Russian author […]

BOOKISH QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Q: Which Russian writer of fiction attended a school for Greek boys?
Answer tomorrow.
[I’m borrowing this quiz from Greek daily Ta Nea.]

So, I’ve been thinking about Nikos Kazantzakis’s “Askitiki” ever since that previous post of mine about it being on a top five besteller list over at Greekbooks.gr. I downloaded the Kimon Friar translation, even though my partner has the original Greek on his bookshelf, which happens to be right behind me. Anyway, the PDF file […]

Speaking of book publishers Metaixmio, just noted that their 2005 literary diary is devoted to Maria Polydouri, possibly the most important modern Greek (female) poet. She was very keen on melancholy poet Kostas Karyotakis and wrote rather intense love poetry as well as many letters to him.

Bob Dylan’s autobiography, is now out in Greek. Title: Η Ζωή Μου. Translators: Χίλντα Παπαδημητρίου, Νίκη Προδρομίδου. Publisher: Metaixmio. Price 15 euro.
What joy.
An excerpt?
«[…] Το μεγάλο αυτοκίνητο σταμάτησε στην άλλη άκρη της γέφυρας για να κατεβώ. Έκλεισα με δύναμη πίσω μου την πόρτα, έγνεψα ένα αντίο και άρχισα να βαδίζω βιαστικά πάνω στο […]

I was browsing the online bookstore Greekbooks and came across a surprise. On the books page was a link to the store’s top 5 bestsellers.
Yes, OK, Mr Dan Brown was there at Number 4, but that was no surprise. The surprise was what was listed as the Number 5 bestseller…
Number 5 […]