Poetry
Η 9η Ιουλίου του 1821 εν Λευκωσία Κύπρου
Not translated into English
Vasilis Michaelides · 1911
Opening lines
Ἁντὰν ἀρτζιέψαν οἱ κρυφοὶ ἀνέμοι τζι' ἐφυσούσαν
τζι' ἀρκίνησεν εἰς τὴν Τουρτζιὰν νὰ κρυφοσυννεφκιάζῃ
τζιαὶ 'ποὺ τὲς τέσσερεις μερκές τὰ νέφη ἐκουβαλούσαν,
ὥστι νὰ κάμουν τὸν τζιαιρόν ν' ἀρκεύκῃ νὰ στοιβάζῃ,
When the hidden winds rose and began to blow,
and over Turkey the sky began to cloud over in secret,
and from all four quarters they carried in the clouds,
so that the storm began to gather,
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from el.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Winds of revolt rise over the Ottoman empire while Cyprus remains calm. A Turkish dignitary urges Archbishop Kyprianos to leave the island or hide in Larnaca; he refuses, for fear that his flight would bring misfortune on the Greeks of the country. Arrested and brought before the governor, he points out that the Cypriots have been disarmed and turns down the chance to save himself; a shepherd, Dimitrios, argues that it would be unjust to kill him. In prison with other bishops, the archbishop again refuses to escape.
Context
The poem was written around 1884-1895 and first appeared in 1911, in the collection of his poems. It has twenty-four cantos in fifteen-syllable verse, in the Cypriot dialect, and returns to a real event: on 9 July 1821, at the start of the Greek War of Independence, the Ottoman authorities on the island turned on Archbishop Kyprianos and the bishops. Critics see in it the work that made its author the national poet of Cyprus, and stanzas from it are often quoted.
Who it is for
A long narrative poem in the Cypriot dialect, to be read in an annotated edition, even by a reader of Greek.
Prizes and reception
The review Athene judged it in 1954 to be without equal in modern Greek epic, for its narration and its images.