Greek Literature Translated Into French

Despite the current harsh economic times in Greece and the limited Greek literature exports abroad, the French speaking residents of Canada will have the chance to read a collection of Greek literature works in the new year.

The first Greek short stories collection is entitled after the words of famous Greek surrealist poet Andreas Embirikos, Prends-Moi au mot et Donne-moi la Main! Nouvelles Grecques Contemporaines translated and edited by acclaimed Canadian modern Greek enthusiast from the University of Montreal Jacques Bouchard.

Literature critic Vagelis Hatzivasiliou signed the collection’s. The volume is the French edition of  David Connolly’s Angelic & Black: Contemporary Greek Short Stories. With this work, 34 Greek novelists were translated into two of the leading literature languages of the world, English and French, allowing readers to get a glimpse of the modern Greek literature thesaurus and its advocates.

The collection includes short stories written by Thanasis Valtinos, Meni Koumandarea, Christoforos Milionis and E. H. Papadimitrakopoulos, whose works revolve around the harsh times of World War II and the Civil War in Greece. The anthology also presents works from the 1990’s including Amanda Mihalopoulou and Sophia Nikolaidou.

The second volume of selected works will be out in France under the title Le Conseil de la Cloche et Autres Nouvelles Grecques (1877-2008)  edited and translated by Stéphane Sawas, Director of French CERLOM center studying and researching literature around the world, who is also Modern Greek professor at École Νormale Supérieure in Paris.

The selected works include among others novels of Konstantinos Kavafis, Giorgos Seferis, Dimitrios Vikelas, Nikos Kavvadias, Giannis Ritsos, Konstantinos Theotokis, Kosmas Politis, Marios Chakkas,Kostas Tachtsis, Antonakis Eugenios and Maria Tsoutsoura. This selection hopes to shed light on some of the most neglected works of Greek prose and poetry writers covering an era of 131 years.

Both selected works editions present biographies, timelines and guiding introductions that complement them. The main aim of the initiative is to bring the French speaking audience closer to the Greek culture and its literature.