Collected Poems, by George Seferis (2025)

Seferis has an interesting story. He was born in Smyrna and Greek diplomat, he was also a Nobel prize winner, which isn’t surprising to me because I enjoyed his poetry and also recognised his personal connections.

The poems here are all in English so I’m sure they’re missing the rhyming and aesthetics that usually come with Greek poetry but the translators have done a good job because I still feel like they’ve captured beauty.

Seferis melds ancient and modern, tragedy with hope, fantastical with reality. He writes about the sea, and about the sense of home. These both touch on the loss of his home city of Smyrna, but also on modern Greek identity.

I enjoyed this book and will happily dive back in.