Poetry
Γαλανά δαχτυλιδάκια
Not translated into English
Glafkos Alithersis · 1919
Synopsis
The first collection of Glafkos Alithersis, written in Athens, where the young man from Limassol was studying physical education and frequenting the literary circles of the Greek capital. Looking back on his work later, the poet himself called it the book of imitations: he had not yet found there the personal voice that critics recognise from his 1923 collection onwards. The poems are not described one by one.
Context
The collection appeared in 1919, followed by two others in 1921 and 1923; it is in the third that critics see his own voice emerge. Settled in Alexandria, Alithersis became, with Petros Magnis, one of the main Greek poets of Egypt after Cavafy. In the quarrel that set the supporters of Cavafy against those of Palamas, he took the side of the latter and published in 1934, a year after the death of the Alexandrian poet, an essay that belittled his work.
Who it is for
Early poems in Greek, of mainly historical value, for readers following the formation of a Cypriot poet of Alexandria.
Prizes and reception
Its author himself judged it harshly; the Greek community of Alexandria paid tribute to him in 2013.