This anthology presents both veteran and younger Greek poets of this generation in a panorama of creative expression that enlightens the recent and continuing dark years of Greek economic strife through the imaginative and passionate inventions of the poets and their translators. Modern poetry can be said to have been begun in classical Greece, so the breaths in this book all have a profound resonance of roots of song growing and spreading to the vessels of reception on a sea of hearty and heartfelt lyrical waves.
Jack Hirschman, who edited the texts, is the emeritus 4th Poet Laureate of San Francisco and a translator from nine languages including Italian, Haitian, Russian, Spanish, French, Albanian. The team of translators include: Jeffrey Carson, Dimitri Charalambous, Peter Constantine, Jack Hirschman, Ismini Ioannou, Nectaria Klapaki, Thanasis Maskaleris, Richard Pierce, Angelos Sakkis, John Sakkis, Nikos Sarris and Katerina Steck. Thanks also go to Dinos Siotis, who put together the original six-year compilation of Greek poetry from which the translators selected the works in this book.