Modern Greek poetry is strange to the Anglicised west, but the Classics, which include ancient Greek poetry, are at the very foundations of modern literatures in English. The Renaissance brought Greek literature into England in the fourteenth century and it has had a lasting influence on the world of English since then. But that is only of distant historical interest where Greek poetry is concerned today.
Cyprus is an island situated in the Mediterranean Sea not far from the ancient Greek archipelago, occupied by Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the home of a Greek culture and language – the north of the island is Turkish, following violent confrontation, especially in 1974. Today we present a sample of Greek Cypriot poetry – the work of Stephanos Stephanides, Professor of English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cyprus.
