Poetry
Τραγούδια του νησιού μου
Not translated into English
Pavlos Liasides · 1928
Synopsis
The first collection by a shepherd from Lysi, in Cypriot dialect, who sings of the ills of his time: poverty, oppression and the misery of workers and peasants. The poet mocks the landowners and moneylenders of the country, who exploited the poor and were in league with the English colonisers. These verses come from the tradition of the popular improvising poets, of whom the author had been one of the representatives.
Context
This first collection opens a body of work of twelve books of poems, from 1928 to the last years of his life, and a few plays, all in dialect. Critics place Liasides, after Vasilis Michailidis and Demetris Lipertis, among the three great dialect poets of Cyprus; the critic Kostas Proussis encouraged him and supplied him with the means to write. His complete poems appeared in 2003, and his refugee house has become a museum.
Who it is for
Popular poems in Cypriot dialect, satirical and sententious, for those who want to hear the voice of the villages.
Prizes and reception
The anthology The Voice of Cyprus named him in 1965, with Michaelides and Lipertis, among the poets worth remembering.
Sources for this page 2
The pages consulted to check this page.