Tasos Livaditis (Anastasios Panteleimon Livaditis) was born in Athens in 1922, and had his first poem “The Hatzidimitri Song” published in Elefthera Grammata in 1946. His book Women with Equine Eyes was a landmark in his literary career and marked his turn into the introverted and existential poetry of his middle life. He worked for the magazine Art Review from 1962–1966 where he published political reviews and critiques. In 1986 he published Violets for a Season, which is considered his swan song. He died in Athens on October 30, 1988, and his remaining handwritten poems were published after his death in a book titled Autumn Handwritings. He was the recipient of the First Poetry Prize in the World Youth Poetry Festival of Warsaw in 1953, the First Poetry Prize of the City of Athens in 1957, the second National Literary Prize for Poetry in 1976, and the First National Literary Prize for Poetry in 1979.
Selected poems
by Tasos Livaditis
I, holding a lamp, was going down the stairs; I had
to discover who I was, what I accomplished in the past;
yet, the house was still standing although we had once
pushed the walls down to make room for the one who
was leaving;
crippled men played my fortune in a card game,
at the far end;Jesus of the drunks was passing each
night along the foggy street lamps and I followed
the killer wiping his footprints in the snow, since
by now I knew; the woman, when I tried to hug her
made a light gesture and went into her door
leaving me outside.
Oh Lord, please allow me to be dead and drunk
Only leave the stars which were friendly to me
even in the streets where they were shooting.
Copyright © 2022, Manolis Aligizakis (translator), Tasos Livaditis, Poems — Volume II, Libros Libertad
Alcoholism
the Greek written by Tasos Livaditis
. . .
Trains whistle
a loud roar from the four corners of the world
thousands of hands grab and chime the bells
men without limbs grab with their teeth and
pull the ropes
women grab their babies and raise them up
like banners
wind blows their hair
the wind unfolds their hair like a flag
we want to saw
we want to weave
we want to give birth
peace
peace
The wind rips the clouds open
and suddenly a waterfall of rain falls
on this ravaged multitude of people
we knead the dough though we don’t
have bread
we extract coal from the mine though
we are always cold
we are the destitute
who come to conquer the world
peace
peace
we the proletariat
The future, like a lightning bolt, plough
the capitals;
cities widen when pushed by the elbows
of the crowd
passing shadows fall roughly onto the buildings
like spades
this roar is the pulse of the highest fever
you could say the same future walks today
Nostrils of blind men from behind their darkness
smell this sun that starts rising
we who tumble down from scaffolds
we are buried in the stoas of mines
we who fall screaming amid the melted steel
peace
peace
the wind that sweeps us tonight
comes from our breaths and our bellows
Thousands of people march on
solemn
rough
dirty
not believing in God
carrying their strength like a new enormous God
we who curse all the sanctuaries of the world
we who sing in all the languages of the world
peace
peace
People march on from all corners of the world
tumbling borders with their thick soles
designing with their callused hands
the wide gestures of the new world destiny
upon the red horizon
and the wind follows them
the great wind follows them
the great wind follows them roaring
peace
peace
P e a c e.
Copyright © 2022, Manolis Aligizakis (translator), Tasos Livaditis, Poems — Volume II, Libros Libertad
from “It Blows Over the Crossroads of the World”
the Greek written by Tasos Livaditis