Vrettakos, Nikiforos

Nikiforos Vrettakos ( Greek Νικηφόρος Βρεττάκος ; January 1, 1912 , Laconia - August 4, 1991 , Athens ) - Greek poet. From a poor peasant family. He graduated from high school. He entered the university in Athens . Graduation from the university failed due to lack of funds. He worked at the factory. He was a municipal employee. He participated in the Greco-Italian war of 1940-1941. He published collections of poems "Under the Shadow and the Light" (1929), "Grimaces of Man" (1935). During the years of the Resistance, he created the poems Heroic Symphony (1944), 33 Days (1945). In the postwar period he published collections: “The Book of Margarita” (1949), “Plumitsa” (1952), “Poems 1929-1951” (1955). In 1954, the poem "Letter to Robert Oppenheimer" was published. In 1961, the book of poems "The Depth of the World" (1961). The book "One of Two Worlds" (1958) is dedicated to the USSR, which Vrettakos visited in 1957. Twice - in 1940 and in 1956 - the poet was awarded the State Prize. During the military dictatorship (1967-1974) he lived in exile in Europe. In 1987 he became an academician of the Athens Academy of Sciences . Vrettakos's poems are translated into many languages ​​of the world. His poems were translated into Russian by M. Waxmacher , Yu. Vronsky , M. Kudinova, P. Grushko , S. Ilyinskaya.