The Harvard Early Modern and Modern Greek Library has published translations of two late collections by Odysseas Elytis, The Oxopetra Elegies and West of Sorrow, translated by David Connolly, renowned translator and Professor of Translation Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

In the introduction of the book, David Connolly states that the poems included in these two collections constitute hymns to life, and not elegies on death, as many critics hastily concluded.

Connolly claims that both works are Elytis’ poetic testament. The Oxopetra Elegies, which he published in November 1991 at the age of eighty, was immediately hailed as one of his finest works. 

In West of Sorrow, published in November 1995, only months before his death, it becomes even clearer that his poetry remains, as it always was, a paean to life, love and beauty.