Poetry
Τζιυπριώτικα τραούδκια
Not translated into English
Demetris Lipertis · 1923
Synopsis
Four volumes of poems in the Cypriot dialect, published from 1923 to 1937, which paint village life: the feelings, mentality and customs of the people, rendered in the island's own language. A poet of love and of woman, Lipertis places his figures in a nature friendly to man, with a Christian morality and nostalgia for a peaceful life of the past; the tone is most often idyllic or descriptive, sometimes pathetic.
Context
Lipertis had first published two collections in learned Greek, in the manner of late Romanticism, including Στόνοι in 1899; he turned to dialect in 1918. The first volume appeared in Nicosia in 1923, the second in 1930 with a preface by Kostis Palamas, the last ones in 1934 and 1937. His poems were set to music by Achilleas Lymbouridis and Dimitris Layios, and a few were translated into English in the anthology The Voice of Cyprus in 1965.
Who it is for
Short poems in Cypriot dialect, often sung, for those who want to hear the language of the island's villages.
Prizes and reception
The review Athene hailed him in 1954 as the lyric poet of Cyprus, rustic and melodious.