f

KIMON FRIARThe Spiritual Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis

A TALK

EDITED AND WITH

TheofanisAN INTRODUCTION BY

C. Stavrou

The First Annual Public Lecturein Modern Greek StudiesSpecial CollectionsUniversity of Minnesota LibrariesMinneapolis

Bilkent UniversltYIibrary

The North Central Publishing Company1979

Tatar S, HALIT4ANTarafrndan Bagrglanmrgtr

Kimon Friar and Nikos Kazantzakis

HILKEN_I U_NtvERStrY LTBRA RY

I llllllt llll lllll lllll lllll llltl lltll llltlltlBl 18440

Copyright @ t979 NostosALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress Card Namber: 79-90836

tsBN o-935476-00-e

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v-aT^lQta JLt

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The publication of this volume wro made possible with assistance from Nostos, the

Society For the Study of Greek Life and Thought, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cover photograph of Nikos Kazantzakis taken by Kimon Friar, Summer1.954.

Frontispiece photograph of Nikos Kazantzakis and Kimon Friar taken byHelen Kazantzakis.

Centerpiece "Homage to Homer: The Return of Ulysses" by Salvador Dali.Courtesy of Theofanis G. Stavrou.

TABLE OF CONTANTS

INTRODUCTION, 1

THE SPIRITUAL ODYSSEYOF NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS, 9

SUPPLEMENT

A FE\Sr LETTERS FROM NIKOS KAZANTZAKISTO KIMON FRIAR, 33

CRITICAL COMMENT ON THEODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL, 39

INTRODUCTION

This small volume is a rribute to the besr known of modernGreek writers, Nikos Kazantzakis (18U3-1957) and his maiorwork the Odyssey which some critics have described as rhe singlemost ambitious literary accomplishment of the twentieth century.At the same time, the volume is a tribute ro Kimon Friar, poet,translator and friend of Kazantzakis who by translating the Odys-sey into English freed it from the confines of the Greek-speakingworld. In a way it is also a tribute to the remarkable collaborationwhich went beyond mere translarion to the recreation of thismonumental literary work. I Finally, it is a tribute to Basil l-aour-das (1912-197I), a neohellenist, who was among the first topreoccupy himself as a critic with Kazantzakis' work, especiallythe Odlssey. The occasion that led to this published tribure wasthe dedication of the Basil Laourdas Modern Greek Collection onMay 19, 1978 under the sponsorship of Special Collections of theO. Meredith W'ilson Librarv at the Universitv of Minnesota.2

I The story of this cr>llaboration is told by Kimon Friar himself in "A UniclueCollab<rration: Translating T'be Odyssey: A Moclern Seqael," Journal of Modern Liter-at ure ( N i kos K az dn tz ak i s S p eci al N a nt ber ), 2. 2 ( 197 l- 1 97 2): 2 | 5-241.

z Rasil I-aourclro'valuable moclern Greek collection was d<>nated to the Univer-sity of Minnesota by Mrs. Louisa laourdas. It will be cued for by Special Collec-tions of the flniversity and it *ill serve d a nrrcleus for developing a researchlibrry in thc intellectual and cultural histr>ry of mociern Greece. This correspondswith the interests of Basil Laourdas who until his dcath sought to pr<>motc modernGreek studies outside Greecc. lior a briefdescription ofthe Laourdas collection secThe<rfanis G. Stavrou, Viuliotbiki Vasili Izourda (The Librry of Basil Laourdas),published by Special C<>llecti<>ns, O. Meredith Wilson Librry, finivcrsity of Min-nesota, 1978, on the occroion of thc dedication of this collection. I wish toacknowledge the cooperation and contribution of a number of individrrals whomade this eyent possible. First t>f all, Mrs. Louisa Laourdas who donared thecollection and who flew from Greece f<rr the occasion; my colleague Pr<>f-essor

Clmke Chambers who, as Chairman of the History Depmtmcnt, negotiated thearrangemcnts for bringing the collcction to the lJniversity ()f Minnesota; Mr.Eldred Smith, who as Director of the University Libruies, officially accepted thecollection; Mr. C. Peter Magrath, President of the flniversity, who addressecl themore than 200 mcmbcr auclience of University r>fficials, profcssors, students andmembcrs <>f the community; Professor Michael C. Petrovich of the History De-

Nikos Kazantzakis has a way of taking hold of his readers as ifby a storm. He invites them to participate in a spiritual as we-ll-as

intellectual exercise, and inevitably those who study him carefullybecome possessed by his "Cretan glance." They are fascinated by

his spiritual struggle for "freedom," even from freedom itself,which characterized his entire life, and by the range of his cease-

less and diverse creative activity which cast him as a person ofprodigious will. This constant struggle, by which Kazantzakis

expected man to sulpass his natural limitations, characterized his

existence as a human being and as a writer, and is felt deeply byhis readers. All who got to know him speak and write about the"appeal" of Kazantzakis' personality: his commitment to the"struggle," his sense of mission, his dedication, his erudition, hisinsatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge, his acceptance and

reiection of all sorts of political and religious creeds, his numerouswanderings, his hermetic proclivities, his passion for the triumphof the Greek demotic language, and above all his industry withoutwhich there would be no Kazantzakis question today. In short, he

was an "uncompromising" individual, as his wife Helen suggests

by so referring to him in the title of her recently published biog-raphy, or an "irregular verb" as Kazantzakis himself was fond ofdescribing himself. :r This fascination with Kazantzakis' personal-

ity and work may be partly due to the fact that Kazantzakis "be-

longs more to the general history of culture than to the narrow

partment, University of Wisconsin, Madison, who spoke on "Basil Laourdas:

Scholr ancl Friencl;" and the keynote speaker, Mr. Kimon Friru, who spoke on

"The Spiritual Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis." I wish to acknowledge in a special

way thc contributions of Mr. Austin Mclean, (lhief of Special collections and his

colleagues, Mr. John Jcnson and Ms. Kathy Tezla, who m()unted an ambitious butelegan-t book

""hibi, i. connection with the eyent and which remained opened

from May I ! to July Jl ' 1978. Finally, my thanks t() students and friencls of mt>dern

Greek culture who demonstrated by their attendance that thcre is a strong interest

in modcrn Grcek studies at the university of Minnesota. The prrblication of this

volume is, among other things, a small contribution in the efforts to sustain an

active intercst in this field.:r The reference is to the title of the Greek edition (Nikos Kazantzakis: Tbe Un-

compromisingMaz, Athens, 1977)of Helen Kazantzakis, NikosKazantzakisABiog-rapby (New York: Simr>n and Schrrster, l9(r8). This is the impression conveyed by

most biographers of Kazantzakis beginning I'ith the most responsible ofthem all,Pandelis Prevelakis. See his Nl&os Kazantzakis andHis Odyssey: A Studl of tbe Prxt

and the Poem translated by Philip Sherrard with a preface by Kimon Friar (New

York: Simon and Schuster, l9(rt; Greek edition, Athens, 195ti)' Those interested

further in Kazantzakis should consult the useful "Kazantzakis Check List" by

Peter Rien it Manclatopboros Bulletin of Moderu GreeA Studies' Special Issue(November 1974), tnd the more accessible one by l)onald Falconio, "Critics

of Kazantzakis: Selected Checklist of \(/ritings in English," Joarnal of Modern

Literature 2.2 (lL)71-1972):314-126. A forthcoming translation by Theodora

limits of modern Greek literature," as Constantine Dhimaras has

suggested.4It is easy to detect immediately a certain internationalism in the

life and work of Kazantzakis, the result of his study and travels

abroad, especially Europe' In a strange way for a person who has

been variously described as a "loner," an "outsider," an "alien-

ated intellectual," a "desperado," Kazantzakis was remarkablycosmopolitan, moving comfoftably from one cultural rnilieu toanother, simultaneously studying thern passionately. Still, he

never forsook his Cretan and, by extension, his Greek heritage'

He would most frequently transcend it or, as a true "intelligent,"subiect it to ruthless examination and criticism' expose the abuses

and failings of some of its institutions, and wish for its purgingand revitalization, but invariably he would return to it for insprra-

tion and reassurance. It constituted part of his "Cretan glance,"his wodd view. This problematization and attempt at reconcilia-tion between, among other things, tradition and modernity,Europe and Asia, rationalism and emotion, the Apollonian and

the Dionysian, extreme individualism and "collective dreams" ac-

count for the immediate response that Kazantzakis exacted and

continues to exact from his readers, Greeks or non-Greeks.It is also easy to detect that everything Kazantzakis had un-

dertaken as a man and as a writer until the eve of the Second

World W'ar pointed toward the Odyssey in which he crnptied him-self of all his visions about his and twentieth-century man's exis-

tential concerns. F{is correspondence, especially with his best

Vasils of Nikos Kazantzakis, Serpent and Lill (Berkeley: University of California

Press), inclucles a bibliography of works by Kazantzakis available in English'

The twentieth anniversary of Kazantzakis' death in October 1977, provided the

occcion f<rr the appearance of a number of works' some original, others rellective,

by indivicluals who knew him pcrsonally and who in st'me way olrther were

influenced by him. These accounts, too, c()nvey the impression about Kazantzakis

mentioned above. Notable among thcse new acc()Lrnts ate: Theorisi tou Nikou

Kazantzaki eikosi chronia ap| to tbanato tou (Reaiu of Nikos Kazantzakis TuentlYears After Ilis Death), Tetradhia "Evthinis," No- 3 (Athens, 1 977), where thirteen

significant figures of modern Greek letters and culture, including Pandelis Prev-

elakis, review the work and personality of the Cretan author, and where ten new

letters of Kazantzakis to Aim. chourmouzios re published; a special issue ofKainoaria epochi ( Neu EpocD) 9 (Spring I 978), dedicatecl to Nikos Kazantzakis; Elli

Alexiou u.d G. f-.r. Stephanakis, Ya ton Nikon Kazantzaki eikosi chronia apo ton

tbanato tou (For Nikos Kazantzakis Tu'enty Years After His Death) (Atherc: Ked-

hros, f977); and Aim. Chourmouziou, Nihos Kazantzails (Athens: Ekdhoseis ton

Philon, 1977), which is the fourth volume in a new edition ofthe celebrated critic's

works.1 C. Th. Dimarc. Modern Greek Literature, translated by Mary P' Gianos (Al-

bany: State University of New York Press, 1972), p. 'i55.

Lr-:-:,,;t

friend Pandelis Prevelakis, makes it abundantly clear that theOdyssey held first priority in his life. His numerous rravels werernissions for gathering facts, impressions, and symbols whichfilled the Odltssey. All his other writings were rehearsals, exercisesfor the big literary struggle which was the Odyssey. He carried itwith him wherever he went, referred everything he read to it,wrote the first drafts with demonic speed but reworked themwith a craftsman's patience and a prophet's conviction. It tookhim fourteen arduous years (1924FI938), during which time healso wrote many other works, to deliver the finished product of33,333 verses. By any measure, the Odyssey is an incredible poeticachievement and, as Pandelis Prevelakis pur it, "if read with theattention it deserves it is capable of changing the reader's soul. " s

Finally, it is equally easily detectable that Kazantzakis was aprofoundly spiritual writer despire his iconoclastic pronounce-ments about religion in general and organized religion in particu-lar. His religious roors ran deep, and no rnatter how much hesnipped aw^y

^t them, they continued to grow to the point where

all his works are permeated by a spiritual fervor. This is true of hisplays, poems, novels, "philosophical" essays, even his travel ac-counts. It is also true thar all his works reveal him as a politicalwriter as well.

Inevitably, serious students of Kazantzakis become acquaintedwith the excitement and controversy which has been generated byboth the life and work of the Cretan writer, a controversy whichreached a critical point with the publication of the Odltssey.Kazantzakis expected that the Greek critics would have been im-pressed by his accomplishmenr. But whereas some praised it as anunprecedented epic, many simply viewed it as a hybristic act;Kazantzakis felt that many, if nor most, Greek critics failed tounderstand the message of his Odyssey.

Among the first to srudy seriously Kazantzakis' epic poem was ayoung man by the name of Basil l-aourdas. Laourdas had iniriallyadmired this huge work. In fact, for a while, he considered it ashis credo. But as he pondered on the linguistic, philological,philosophical and cultural questions raised in that monumentalwork, what was for Laourdas a credo gradually became a prob-lem. Laourdas' attitude roward Kazantzakis' work, especially the

5 Pandelis Prevelakis, "Kazantzakis, Vios kai Erg;ha" (Kazantzakis' Life andWorks), Tetradhia "Evthinis," No. 3 (1977):9-15. Prevelakis made this statemenr inhis mmorial address on the occroion of the twentieth anniversay of Kazanrzakis'death on October 26,1977, in the BasilicaofSt. Mark in lrakleion, Crete. Thisaddress is the best summary and analysis of Kazantzakis'life and work in anylanguage, and it should be translated into English.

Odlsse1, is more complex than is usually assumed. It must beremembered that Laourdas' critical essay appeared in 1943, dur-ing the German occupation of Greece. The young Laourdas wasconcerned with the immediate dangers facing the nation and grewimpatient with Greek writers who seemed to ignore native tradi-tions and who came instead under the influence of Europeanideologies. His world view and his religious and national concernsmilitated against his continued acceptance of the OdysseJ/, eventhough by 1942 Kazantzakis' hostility against, and his criticism of,modern Hellenism, which had obsessed him during the interwaryears, had been gradually replaced by a peculiar "mellownationalism" or patriotism, as reflected in his novel Zorba tbeGreeA, written during the Second Vorld Var.6 This "rejection" ofthe Odyssey has been exaggeratedly misunderstood and has beeninterpreted as a general rejection by I-aourdas of Kazantzakis andhis work.7

Controversy over the nature of Kazantzakis' contribution tomodern Greek literature and culture will undoubtedly continue,but any discussion of modern Greek literature and thought with-out appropriate references to Kazantzakis is inconceivable. For toquote Dhimaras again, "At the convergence of movements and

6 Laourdas'critical essay, I'be Odysel ofKazantzakis (Athens, l94J), was re-printed in a collection of his essays, Philologhika Dhokimia (Literary Critical Es-

says), edited and with an introduction by Dinos Christianopoulos (Thessaloniki,1977), pp. 1-22. The best balanced acc()unt of the philosophical problems Iaour-dm experienced while studying the Odyssel is a special essay by Pandelis Prev-

elakis, "Mnimr)sin() sto Vasileio Laourda" (Memorial to Basil Laourdas), in-cluded in the volrrme, Essals in Memorl of Basil Iaourdas (Thessaloniki, 1975), pp.

29-43. With rcgard to the question of Kazantzakis' return to his native rurtsduringthe Second Word \D7ar, see Broil Laourdas, "Idero and Ideals in ContemptrraryGreckLiterature,"BalkanStudies90968):155-166. PeterBiendealswiththesame question in greater detail in a paper which he read at the M<xlern GreekStudies Association Conference in Wchington, D.C. (November ll, 1978), on"Nationalism versus Patriotism in Kazantzakis' 'Occupational Novel,' 7'orba tbe

Greek," and which will be part of his forthcoming study on the politics ofKazantzakis.

7 ln lg66, in Thessaloniki and in the midst of a group of University of Minnesotastudents visiting Greece, Laourdas and I engaged in a friendly debate aboutKazantzakis and his place in modern Greek letters. Despite his critical attitude,Laourdro ended that debate with the follt>wing remarks which deserve rccording:"Still, undeniably, Kazantzakis is a grcat writer, and the fact that we talk so

presionately about his work today attests t() his greatness." Neither was thedialogue betveen Iaourdm and Kazantzakis totally brokcn, ro is gcnerally as-

sumed. Three yeas after laourdas'essay on the Od1ssey, Kazantzakis sent him acopy of his new play Capodistrias with the inscription, "To the wise, belovedfellow fighter and friencl," an indication, it seems, that despite ideological andother disagreements the tw() men maintained a proftrund respect f()r each other.

currents, Kazantzakis could be the point of departure for a varietyof researches in the Greek intellectual world."8

It is this convergence of movements and currents in the personand work of Nikos Kazantzakis that prompted me to suggest himas the lecture topic to be offered in connection with the dedicationof the Basil I-aourdas Modern Greek Collection. The relationshipof Kazantzakis and Laourdas, needless ro say, played a role. Andthe fact that the Laourdas I-rbrary contains a rich collection ofKazantzakiana, including a copy of the original edition of theOdyssey with I-aourdas' marginalia, was further inducement.There were two other reasons: October 26. 1977. marked thetwentieth anniversary of the death of Kazantzakis and this was anopportunity to honor him in some way; and Kimon Friar, thefriend and translator of Kazantzakis, was in the United States.

I(imon Friar is largely responsible for the promotion of NikosKazantzakis to the English-speaking wodd. ln fact, it is difficultto dissociate the two. It is difficult to dissociate Kimon Friar fromthe promotion of modern Greek studies in general and poetry inparticular in the English-speaking world, especially the UnitedStates. He has translated most of the modern Greek poets intoEnglish.e But the pride of his translation accomplishments is, ofcourse, the Odyssey, as the latter was rhe pride of Kazantzakis'accomplishments. It was a Herculean task and an unusual collab-oration between Kazantzakis and Friar which led to a movingintimate friendship, and which is reflected in the letters fromKazantzakis to Friar printed in this volume. Kazantzakis wasfully appreciative of Friar's creative powers as a translator andof his devotion to the Odyssey. Gradually, he came to dependalmost desperately on him as the man who would make availableto the Engl-ish-speaking world his magnum opus.

Friar did not disappoint him, even though, unfortunately, theOdyssey did not appear in English until a year after Kazantzakis'death. For four years Friar labored faithfully over the translationof the Odyssey getting to know both the aurhor and the workintimately. The result was wofth all the intellectual and physicalinvestment. The Odyssey of Kazantzakis became The Odyssey: AMMern Sequel of Kimon Friar, one is tempted to say. It was awork of art in its own right and was received as such by themajority of the critics in the United States and England as thesample of reviews at the end of this volume remind us.

" C. Th. Dimrro, op. cit., p. 455.e See especially the anthology Modern GreeA Poetry, translation, introduction, an

essay ()n translation and notes by Kimon Friar (New York: Simon and Schuster,r97 t.

Rarely has an epic of this size enjoyed the popularity, commer-cial success and critical appraise which befell the Odjtssey. lt isafter all, intellectually, an extremely demanding work. Yer ir isread by scholars, students and by business executives. The inter-est in the work may be partly the result of Kazantzakis' ability tocapture in the person and struggle of the modern Odysseus atleast some of the existential concerns of twentieth-century man.In the final analysis, the Odyssey may have succeeded partly be-cause of the way Friar has cared for it even after its publication inEnglish. For even though he resides in Greece, he returns to theUnited States either as a visiting professor or as a lecturer ontopics of modern Greek literature and culture. He has lectured tohundreds of universities and institutions in the United States.South America and Greece. He is tireless even when he speaks toindividuals about his work or about modern Greek writers. Hebecame especially known for his lecture on Kazantzakis' TheOdyssey: A Modern Sequel and The Saoiors of GM, which he gaverepeatedly after the publication of his translation in 1958. Hislecture on the Odyssey had acquired the reputation of a classic.

Vhen I invited Kimon Friar to deliver his lecture on "TheSpiritual Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis" on the occzrsion of thededication of the Basil l-aourdas library, I expressed interest inhaving his talk published. He informed me that he had often beenasked for copies of his talk but that he had always demurred,although he had generously permitted rapes to be made of it forstudent and broadcast use. FIis reluctance stemmed from severalrensons: because he wished to continue grving it as a talk unavail-able in printed form, because much of what he recounts here canbe found in other forms in various of his publications onKazantzakis, but primarily because he felt that the style of a talkdiffers from the style of the written word, being much simpler,less subordinated, so shaped as to create an impact and to beunderstood on first hearing. Much of the effectiveness of his talkdepended, he believed, almost as much on its delivery as on whatit had to say. Nevertheless, because requests for this talk haveincreased over the years, and because he no longer feels impelledto give it often, he has kindly consented to its publication, thoughwith some trepidation, hoping that it might revive pleasantmemories in those of his readers who have heard him deliver it orto introduce a masterpiece to those who knew little ofKazantzakis. With some minor additions, "The Spiritual Odysseyof Nikos Kazantzakis" is substantially the same talk Friar gave inthe Special Collections section of the O. Meredith Wilson l-tbrary atthe (Jniversity of Minnesota for the inauguration of the BasilI-aourdas Modern Greek Collection on May 19, 1978. The publica-

tion of this talk has been enriched by some letters Kazantzakiswrote to Friar during their collaborarion, s<.rme reviews of TbeOdyssey: A Modern Sequel soon after its initial publication in 195g,by a photograph of the two poets during the time of their collab-oration, and by Salvador Dali's "Homage to Homer: The Return ofUlysses." By way of contrast, Dali's work, depicting the rejoicingof the Gods over the return of the Homeric Odysseus, heightensthe decision of K:^zantzakis'hero, the modern Odysseus, to leaveIthaca again, in defiance of Gods and mortals.

It is a minor detail to be sure, but a pleasant one that KimonFriar was in Minnesota at the University of Minnesota in Duluthwhen he was first approached by Simon and Schuster to un-dertake his translation of the Odyssey, and that his talk, on thesame sub;'ecr, was delivered at the University of Minnesota inMinneapolis in connection with the celebration of May 19, Ig7g.In a way, then, the present volume is a tribute to NikosKazantzakis and Kimon Friar the poets as well as to Basil Laour-das the neohellenisr.

Theofanis G. StavrouUniversity of MinnesotaMay 18, 1979

THE SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY OF NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

I was teaching at rhe Duluth branch of rhe University of Min-nesota rn 1954 when I received a telegram from Max Schuster ofSimon and Schuster asking if I would r,rndertake rhe translation ofNikos Kazanrzakis' epical poem, the Odyssey. He had gone toAntibes on the French Riviera, where Kazantzakis was then liv-ing, to sign him up for more novels after the great success his firmhad in publishing Torba the Greeh. ln Atli"r,r. previously, hiswife, Ray, had bor-rght one of the rare copies of the first de luxeedition of the poem, l0 by l5 inches, 83l pages, published in l93gin a limited edition of 301 copies. On Kazantzakis'desk now hesaw another such copy. "Vhat exactly is this monster?" he asked."Read me some of it. " As Kazantzakis read in his sonorous Greek,with gestures and intonarions appropriate to that epic, Schr_rster,seyes lit up, and ahhough he had not understood a single word, hecried out, "This is a book I must publish!," for since childhood hehad been inordinately fond of Homer's own Odltsselt Obviously,he had f<rrgotten, ()r was unaware, that I had submittecl such aproposal to his publishing house (and t<.r fifteen other firms) a fewyears previously, and had been refused. "But who can possiblytranslate such a monstrolls work?" he inquired, and to my eternalpride Kazantzakis answered, "Only one man in the world. " ..Andwhere is he?" Schusrer asked. "In a place called Dr,rluth,"Kazantzakis answered.

And so it was I received that fareful telegram in Duluth fromSchuster and Kazantzakis in Antibes. I replied immediately howmuch I had always wanted to translate that masterpiece, but myduties at the university would permit me to work only in thesummers, and to translate only into proset for if I attempted ametrical translation and kept my university position, the workmight take me a dozen years or more.

I had first lr;'et Kazafltzakis in a student's hosrel in Florence inthe summer of l95l on my way ro the United Statcs. We hadspoken togerher barely a half hour when he asked me suddenly if Ihad read all his work, fcrr I gave him the impression that I un-

derstood his thought tretter than any man he knew, with theexceprion of pandelis prevelakis, his friend "f ,";; i";;;;;.No, I answered; I had onty .; ;;;^;.;-y very smarl secionsNikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghiku hud.hosen to ilr,.st"ute with ink draw-lngs, rogether with the synopsis Kazantzakis had written r;;;;them into one unity. Thii is what I nuJ ,.rrrrfu,"d inro prose, hadsubmitted ro vario ,s^publishing fir;r;."a nra been rejected.When in June of 1954 I sailel," A",ii", and collaborated withKazantzakis for four monrhs, *" 'rr"rin"Jirrat we did jndeed havean astonishing rapporr between us. He could anricipr,. ;;;;;;thought, and I his. B:r*:: us a deep,"iu,;,rnrf,lp ;,";;il,";lbetween son and spiritual father. W"T.Ja sit side by side at hisdesk. and as he ..u.1, fr.,- tn.C.".i,"J"',. would ask him ques_tions, and thus filled several

""."il;k;;itn exegesis on difficultwords, phrases, images, meanings, nuances, or whatever elsemight help me rowara u., ,..r.u.1-o.*fr.r"r.While still in Antibes, I translateJ ,tl

".r.i." sixth book intoprose, but I was not satisfied. Kazantzakis, ,l.h l;;";; ;;;metaphors would sink in the shallow *u,.r, of prose rhythms;they seemed to need the bt,oyancy ."j *Jgh, of deep rhythmicalwaters to keep them afloat o., _"a"., of *u'rr" tength. Therefore Itried translating variorrs sections in a variety of meters, in pen_tameter, hexameter, heptameter, and in the original r"m."i".iambic ocrameter. Some of ,tr"r"-"p".iments, together withtranslations into prose, I sent to ou.ii.rr ru".rd; ,;-J;.;;;;_

Fq::,?J;o';."''#;:tjt':l'jffi ffi:i,*;: j:.*,f;:ftlArthur Miller, Gore Vidal, and to ,"rir.i "rt

*s. All replied that Imust.translate this great work into meter.lhrs placed me in a considerable dilemma. It would be impos-sible to rranslate into meter and to retain my position at the uni_versity. Unable to obtain a leav-e

"f ,br;;;, I resigned, therefore,accepted a very small stipend f.o- Simonlnd Schuster, togetherwith a Fulbright granr as Research Scholar at the universiry ofAthens, and in october of 19541.f, A;;i;;;"r Greece to begin anOdyssey of my own. I traveled ttr.o.rgh rnor, of Greece on amotorscooter I had boughr in Naples, tlanslating u, I *"rl,,"unjwandering through many of .r," i"g.u., ;ianas, firring in third_rate whitewashed inns, often workl.rg ;; irhrra raverns or onsmall iron tables by the seaside, nibblin! "; ;" tentacles of octopiand sipping that notorio". i"."k-;l;"]^"",r,"., which to theuninitiated tastes like turpentine. f..".y ,iir" I completed one

foof or the. twenty-four, i_would ,".d , ;;;, ." Kazantzakis inAntibes, with many questions, and he *oLfa u.r.*er me im_

mediately with detailed replies. \When I had half finished the epicin this manner, he and I met again, alone, in adjoining rooms, inthe old Austrian-Hungarian Alps near Bled in Yugoslavia, andwent over the entire twelve books I had translatecl. After that, Icontinued my peregrinations, and when I had finished the entiretwenty-frrur books, we met, for the last time, in Antibes again, inMay of 1957, and went over my entire translation. Then I left formy parents' home in a suburb of Chicago, where I put the finish-ing touches to my translation, gave it to my publishers, and leftfor a ten-month tour throughout South America as galley and pageproofs followed me frantically to Antofagasta, Santiago, PuertoMontt, Ais6n, Coyhaique, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, San Paulo,and Rio de Janeiro where I finally collapsed on the beach atCopacabana.

Last October marked the twentieth year of Kazantzakis' death.Twenty years ago when I had been in Antibes sa)'lnfi goodbye, hehad suddenly burst into tears, and when I asked his wife why, shereplied he had a premonition that we wor-rld never meet again.Twenty years previously, forty years afio, he had gone to Chinaunder the old regime, and now he was on his way there again,insatiably eager to see and understand what new culture andcivilization were taking root there. The last communication Ihad from him was a postcard from Peking of a bird perched on ablossoming cherry bough. He wrote me: "$7e bring you into ourminds, into our hearts every moment. I f<rrce my body to obey mysoul, and thus I never tire. I am saying farewell to all things, andall things are saying farewell to me. Neverrnorel The fairy talc iscoming to an end. " These were his last words to me. His premoni-tion was coming true.

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Iraklion, Crete, in 1883, and lredied in Freiburg, Germany, in 1957. Fle is the aurhor of aboutthirteen novels, frrr which he is best known; of about rwentydramas, most of them in poetic form; of thrce philosophicalstudies, one on Nietzsche, one on Bergson, and one on his ownvision of life, about which I shall speak to y()u later. He haswritten travel books on Spain, Greece, England, China, )apan,Israel, Russia, hundreds of articles fcrr newspapers and encyclo-pedias, and dozens of books for the public schools of Greece. Inaddition, he has translated into modern Greek all of Homer's IliadanrJ Odyssel, all of Dante's Didne Comedl, the first part ofGoethe's Faast, Nietzsche's TDe Birth of T'ragedy, Bergson's OaIzugbter, Darwin's Tbe Origin of Species, and abour forty orherbooks. Furthermore, he has written two books of poetry. The

l0ll

first, entitled Terza Rinta, rvrittcn in Dante's stanza form, is com-posecl of separate p()ems abotrt the men and w()men u'ho haveinfltrenceci him most in lifc: poems, that is, on Dantc, Shake-speare, St. Teresa, Moses, Mohammed, E[ Grcco, Lenin, Don

Qrrixote, Ghenghis Khan, his ancest()rs, his wife, himself. Anclthen, <rf c()urse, he has clared to write a secluel to Homer's Od1'sse1,

but three timcs the sizc of that original epic, in 3.l,ll3 lir.res offeminine iambic octamcter. and vr.'hich I have translated int<r

13.3-l.l lines of jambic hexzrmeter of variablc masculine andfcmirrine enclings. Vhen hc entitled l.ris poem simply Odyssel, Iimagir-re he hopecl that when future generati()ns werc discLlssing a

p()cm callcd Oelyssey, s()me()ne wotrlcl ask "$/hose poem do yolr

mean!"' lt is I who have aclcled the strbtitle A Modern Secluel.

Kazantzakis begins his epic with zr Prohrguc t() the Strn, firr theentirc p()em is srrnwashed ancl sundrenchecl in the brilliant lightof Greecc. The Sun itself is a personification in the poern; it talks,w-alks, ancl wccps with him on his adventures. Ancl hcre in thePrologue, one of the main themcs is stated: the themc that allmatter, all watcr, stone, fire ;rncl earth mllst' evcntrrally, in thecvolution of nature, be transf<rrmecl into spirit. Here is tl-re pas-

sage:

O Sun, my qrtick cocluetting eye, my reclhairecl hound,

sniff orrt all cluarrics that I krve, give them srvift chase,

tell me all that yort've seen on earth, all that you've hcarcl,

ancl I shall pass them through my entrail's sccrct fi'rge'titl sloN ly, rvith prof<rr.rncl c:rresscs, play, ancl laughter,

st()nes, water, fire, and earth shall bc transfirrmcd to spirit,ancl thc mtrd-rvingecl ancl hcavy sottl, frecd of its flesh,

shall like zr flame sercne ascencl and facle in thc srrn.

Ancl thc Prologr.re ends:

Aho1., c:rst rvretchecl s()rr()w <ttrt, ;rrick tlp vottr eilrs -I sing the srrfferings antl the t()rments of renou'necl ()d1'sserrs.

Book I then bcgins, in a violent and aggressive rlanner. I kn<tu'ofn() ()ther epic poern that bcgins so fcrociotrsly. Yolr nill remcn-rber

that t<>warcl the end of Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus has killed the

suiters of his w-ife, Pcnek4;e, and that his body bccomcs clrenchecl

lr.ith bltxrd. Kazantzakis has graltecl his poem ()n this secti()n ()f

Ilomer's epic in B<xrk XXll. lt bcgins u'ith an "Ar-rd," as th()trgh itlvere directl-v c()l-rtintrinL the previous pocm. Hcre is the t4rening:

Ancl u'hcn in his u'icle cortrtyards C)clyssctrs Iracl ctrt dou'nthc insolcnt youths, hc hrrng on high his satecl bou'ancl strode t() thc warm bath to cleanse his bkxrdstainccl bocly'

Two slaves preparecl his bath, brrt u'hen they saw their lrrdthev shrieked with terror, firr his loins and belly stcamed,and thick black blood clrippecl dou'n from botl-r his mtrrclerous palrns.

Kazantzakis used to say t() me, prounclinl; his table in rhythm tothe rneter, tastinfi anci emphasizing each syllable, "Ancl thickblack blood clrippecl ckrwnl Ah, if only I hacl monosyllablcsl" TheGreck language, like all inflected languages, is highly polysyllabicand has practically no monosyllables. I am srtre yorr lr'otrld like t<r

hcar this passafae in Kazantzakis' olvn clemotic Greck:

Itl z 'irrd ro0tpure rois ytripoug zrous 1ris oris gcyp6lis tvrltr€s rou,rit xaray6prcarro iuuctxptpurre 6o{&pt rou ri Aurrrrirrsxai 6nl3q c.'i |eppi )r<ntrpo, ri p.tyu rtn xoplL"i r.,iv nlttuet.Aur) 6rrr-r),es rruyxepuoirruu 'rit uep(t, pr! 6s ei6al itt' ivg6'r4prillau ,paufi, yuurL fi oyoupil rottrrr! rcai rd pept(t tn ityut(LtuxuL pttilttr trr(t(ou utpo'lt rrlyrt\ xt rlzir ris 5u6 rou goirlres.

During a festival hcld in Ithaca one day, a minstrel sings of howthree godfathers had blesscd thc infant Odysscus in his cradle.The first godfather was Tantalus, u,ho wzrs punished by neverbcing able to drink the receding \\'ater t()Frard *'hich he st<xrpecl,n()r grasp the frrrit hc tried t() reach. He *'as being, as we saytoday, "tantalized," and it rvas he who bccltrcathcd to ()d.vssetrs

the never-satisfied, the ever-hungry hcart. The seconcl g()dfatherwas Heracles, *'ho had pcrforrned the twclve Herclrlcan labors,ancl wh<r beqtreathed to Oil1'sserrs the tltirteentb lab<tr, still to beperf<rrmecl. The thircl gocllhthe'r was Pr()metheus, the henr u'h<rlrad stolcn firc fnrm the tyrant, Zeus, ancl hacl given it to man-kind. Fle beclueathcd to Odysseus the humanistic heart, ever rc-belli<lus agair-rst tyranny zrnd oppression.

Btrt Odvsseus becomes borecl u'ith his island home of lthaca,f<rr u'hich he hacl lorrgcd alm()st t\\'enty vears. He bec<>mes boredwith his timid and pragmatic son, Telemachus; ancl he becomesinfinitely borecl u,ith his goocl ancl patient wif'e, Penel<)pe. Heresolvcs, thcrcfr>rc, to lcave all this fhr bchind, t() sail off onfurther aclvcntrrres, t() cxpl()rc neu' h<>rizons. He gathers t()gethcra m()tley crew. Thcre is Captain Clam, an olcl sea-u,olf; thcre is

Orphetrs, a scraggl-v and timicl p()etaster; there is Harclih<x>d, a

brawny coppersmith; there is Grar-rite, a stalu'art votrng man ofthe rnountainsl and abovc all thcrc is Kentalrr. a rlountain ofmeat, r,hom he firrrncl clnrnk in a guttcr, ancl t() rvhom he saicl:"Come along as ballast for my ship! Arrcl besides, strch zr rnorrntainof meat can be transfirrrnecl into mtrch spirit."

They builcl a ski€F ancl set sail f<rr Sparta, firr it's Oclysser-rs'intention to visit his olcl friend of tl-re Trojan $/ars, King

l2 r3

Menelaus, and to induce him to come along on further adven-

tures. They land in the Peloponnesus, and as Odysseus and Ken-taur make their way toward tl-re palace, they see on the t<>ad a

horde of Dorian barbarians who have been inundating the countryfrom the North. These represent for Kazantzakis the new, savage'

barbarous blood that always descends on decaying, decadent

civilizations and infuses them with new blood, much like the

Huns, the Goths, and the Vandals, much, Kazantzakis thought,like the Russians today. Vhen Odysseus reaches Sparta, he Iindsthe peasants in revolt against their grasping King, but by threaten-

ing them with the possibility of a Doric attack unless they seek

protecti()n under their King's aegis, Odysseus persuades them tosubmit and obey. This trickery reveals Odysseus' aristocratic bias,

but which, as we shall see, undergoes radical change as the poem

progresses. When he tries to induce Menelaus to ioin him infurther voyages, Menelaus refuses, for he is fat, content, and richwith thc cxploitation of his people. And besides, he has for wifeagain the most beautiful woman in the world. But Helen has

become bored with her sedentary life in Sparta, and longs once

rnore to become the adored of many men. And so, in a brilliantidea of Kazantzakis', the second willing abduction of Helen oc-

cufs.Odysseus takes with him a brave young mountain shepherd,

Rocky, and together with Helen and all his crew, thcy set sail

again, but this time toward no certain destination. As they sail, a

violent storm threatens to capsize their ship. Orpheus whines thatGod is demanding a sacrifice in expiation for the abduction ofHelen, but though Hardihood approaches her to cast her into the

waves, he finds that he cannot, overwhelmed by her beauty'

Odysseus rcjoices in his manliness and vows to make him King ofthe first land they sight. The storm subsides, they sight the island

of Crete, and sail into the bustling harbor town of Knossos.

Another old crony of Odysseus is on the throne, King Idomeneus,and Odysseus thinks he will be received with opcn arms' ButIdomeneus has eyes only for Helen, and wishes to make her his

bride in the orgiastic bull rituals that are to be held in the arena'

Odysseus becclmes so nauseated with the decadence of Knossos

that he joins with ldomeneus'youngest daughter, Phida, and the

slaves of the palace, in a revolt against her father. In the slaughter,Phida beheads her father, Knossos is burned to the fgouncl' Odys-

seus makes Harclihood King, as he had promised, then marriesHelen <rff to a yolrng blond Dorian. This ntattiage symbolizes forKazantzakis the mingling of Helen's old Achaean blood with the

new blood that is to result in the Golden Age of Perikles.

During the turmoils in Knossos, Odysseus lies down by theriverbank and listens to a slave singing of freedom. Finally, as hedrowses and falls asleep, his old companion, Death, makes thefirst of his many appearances, lies beside him in comradely em-brace, and the two sleep together:

Death came and stretched full length along the archer's side;weary from wandering all night long, his lids were heavy,and he, too, longed to sit and sleep awhile besidehis old friencl near the river, by a willow's shacie-Throwing his bony arms ac()ss the archer's chest,he and his boon companion slowly sank in sleep.Death slept, and dreamt that man indeed, perhaps, cxistcd,that horrses r()se on earth, perhaps, kingdoms and castles,that cven gardens rose and that beneath their shadecourt laclies strolled in languor ancl hanclmaidens sang.He dreamt there was a sun that fosc, a m()on that sh<lne,a wheel of earth that turned and very season brought,perhaps, all kinds of frtrit and flowers, cooling rain and snow,and that it turned ()nce m()re, perhaps, till earth renewed.Btrt Death smilecl secretly in sleep for he knew wellthis x'as but drcam, a dapplcd wind, toy of his wcary mind,anci nnperttrrbeci, allou,ed this evil dream to goad him.But sftrwly life took c()Lrra{ae, and the whccl u'hirled round,earth gaped with hunger, sun and rain sank in her box'els,unnrrmbered eggs hatchcd birds, the world was lilled with w()rms,rrntil a packed battalion of beasts, men and thoughtssct ()Lrt and pounced on sleeping Death to cat him whole.A human pair crouched in his nostrils'heaving caves,there lit and fed a lrre, set rrp their horrse and cooked,and from Dcath's uppcr lip hung down their new son's cradle.Feeling his nostrils tingling and his pale lips ticklecl,Death suddenly shook and tossed in sleep, ancl the dream vanished.For a brief m()ment Death had fallcn aslccp and dreamt of life.

Restless once more, Odysseus sets ol'lt on further adventures. Heis now impetled by that old dream of ancient explorers: that offinding the source of the Nile. He se ts off for Egypt, therefore, andas he sails up the Nile, he sees misery and poverty everywhere.Here the gods are still half man and half beast, and not like theOlympian gods, half man and half god. Although Odysseus hadlong ago abandoned the twelve Olympian gods, he is still a man insearch of his soul, of a new god.

In Egypt he conducts what must be among the first archeologi-cal digs in literature, and in the tomb of an ancient king finds atreasure of gold and precious jewels. He and his crew load downtheir ship almost to sinking with all this treastrre, but as they sailhe discovers that not onlv his crew. but that also he himself is now

r4 r5

thinking of settling down, of builcling estates and villas on theNile, of leading the good, comfortable, bourgeoise life. He corn-

mands, theref<rre, that all this treasure' even the smallest goldcoin, be cast overboard, and he exclaims:

lf I corrld choose what gods to carry ()rl all ml ships,I'cl chrxrse both War ancl lJtrnger, that ficrce and fruitful pair'

For Odysseus knows well that neu' horizons are never gained bysatisfied ancl comf<rrtable men, but by th<>sc rl'ho arc alu'ays at war

- with themsclves; who arc always hungry

- to explore ne\'!'

regions of thotrght.

This irnpetrrotrs and grand gcsturc of casting treastrre into the

river, I cliscovered later, v'as very characteristic of the manKazantzakis himself-. $7hen he was a y()Lrng man of about thirty orso, he \\"ent t() Assisi to stucly the life of his favoritc saint, St.

Francis. He lived in the hotrse of tl-re Contessa Enrichetta' an olcl

aristt>crat then in her eighties. She n'ould be r"'aiting f<rr him every

evcning by the firesicle with a ctrp of tca, and as they clrank ancl

conversecl, a deep ancl endearing love blossomed between the oldContessa and the y()Lrng man. Vhen he was abotlt to leave' she

begged him to remain, offering to tnzrke him l-rer hcir, to lcave himall her possessions; btrt he replied sadly that he had many newhorizons to explore, and could not remain. Hou'ever, he macle a

date witl-r her frrr lunch, to be kept ten years later. Ten years later,he li,as in Spain rep()rting on the Civil \War. Sucldenly, he rcmem-bered his clatc with the Contessa, ancl u'hat I admire m()st is thathe never troubled to find ()ut if the Contessa, nor,' in her nineties,\\.,as still alivc. He took a plane in'rmediately t() Assisi, boughtflowers and frr.rit, and knockcd on hcr dtxrr. It rvas opened by herrnaid who saicl, ll'ithout an i()ta of strrprise, "Mr. Kazantzakis, the

Contessa is cxpecting you. Yott will lunch together in hcr bottdoir'for she is rather olcl and stightly indisposed' " He f<runcl herproppecl up on hcr pilkrws, dressecl in her finest laces, and theyf-ell weeping into each othcr's arms. Aftcr he hacl presented herwith the flowers and fiuit, they lunchecl together' talkir-rg of olcl

time and of their affection. Then Kazantzakis returned to Spain'and the olcl Contessa, ofcourse, died soon after, having stubborn-ly sustained her life fcrr this rendezvous. People capable of makingsuch grand ancl in-rpetut)Lrs gestllrcs are my kind of pe()ple.

Soon after casting treaslrre into the river, Ociysseus ioins a

y()rtn{i communist leader, the Jewish girl, Rala, in a rcvolutionagainst the Pharaoh and his decadent pricsts, in direct c()ntrast to

his opposition of the Spartan peasanrs before tl-re palacc ofMenelaus. Btrt the anny <lf the pharaoh clef-eats rhe armv of theworkers, and l{ala and Odysseus are thrown into a dunge,rr-r. Th.."he has many horriblc nightmares of a new god rvh<xe face anclb.dy arc t.rt,red and t.rmented; br-rt whenever he tries t() carveout this face into a mask, he cliscovers that he is al.w,ays carvingout his ()wl1 t()rt'red and t<lrmentecl face. ()ne day, by r.1,al c.ni_mand, hc slings such a rnask over his sl-rotrlders and danc-es. a laZ<>rba, before the Pharaoh. Suclclenly, in the clirnax of the clance,he claps the mask ovcr l-ris facc, and thc pl-rara.h is s. terrified .fthis vision .l' a new zrnd t.rmented god that he drives odysse.s()Lrt ()f Egypt, {'earftrl cven of having him assassinated.

Odyssctrs n()w gathers a rough-and-trrmblc crew of thievcs. ad-ventlrrers, gamblers ancl beggars, the persecuted ancl the driven,the kincl of people who have no hope of a better lifc where theyarc and u,l-r. l.ng f<rr a new, virgin land in rvhich t. settle. ()dvslseus, as y()' sec, has been sl.wly ev.lving fi.ln irn udu.r-rtr',r.rt.,sand pagan hero into a kind oF Hebraic figr-rre, mrrch like Moses,leading his cl-rilclren ..t .f Eg1,pt ancl t'ward the pr.mised La'd.

Afier many tribulations, they do discover the lake sorrrce of theNile, sitrrated at the fixrt .f a tall m.trntain. oclyssetrs sets his ment. btrilding q,'hat he h<4>es will be a nc*. a'd ideal city, far fr.mthc c<rntaminations <>f the tben moclern civilizations; but rvc knowthis t<r bc a vain dream, a dream that impellecl plat. in his Rebub-/it', St. Arrgtrstinc in his (.ity r,f Got/,.Sir Th,mas M.u,r" in hisUtopia.

Odysseus, meanu'l-rile, ascencls t() rhe very top of the m()untain,ancl therc, like M.ses, c()mmrnes rvith his g.d firr seven days zrnclseven

'ights. Then he desccnds fi.rn rhe mo.,nt.ir-,, bringing hispeople new c()mmandments by which t<l live, or-r lvhich to cstab_lish a new civilization. This is embodiecl in Books XIV ancl XVIof the oclyssejt, b.t it is given its tirllest trearment in an.ther b<xrkI>y Kaz.antzakis whicl-r I have translatecl, T'be Satictrs of Gotl:Spiritaal Exercises. Here, in a passionzrte and poctic style,Kazantzakis has set d.u'n thc c.rc of his visirn r>f rife. It is the kevt<> all his work, and he has tried togive it variecl ftrrrn in thc n,,v"l,thc clrama, the travelogue, in journalisrn, in epic poetry, and evenin p.litical acti()n. 1<>*'arcl the encl .f this talk, I shall teil y'r'r'hat

visi<>n it was that Odvsscus saw ()ll the r()p.f the m'rrntain,ancl what new c()rrlrnandments he reccivcd from his ncrv god.

Odysseus now desccnds from the rnorrntain with these newcommanclments, and firr a ycar l-re ancl his troops busy themselvcswith btrilcling their new Utopia, rheir lcleal City, their Land.f thc

l6 I7

Heart's Desire. But on the very day when they are inaugurating

and celebrating their new city, the earth begins to tremble, the

mountain begins to erupt with fire and lava, the ground gapes

wide, and the entire city and almost all of its inhabitants are

swallowed up. This is a theme that occurs again and again in the

Odysselt and in all of Kazantzakis' works: the theme that Nature'

or-God, is utterly indifferent to man's fate; that earthquakes'

erLrptions, floods, catastrophes' or wars wipe out all of man's

".rd"u.n.,.s; that man is always building ftrr the sheer joy of build-

ing, of creating, and not for any hope or reward, knowing full*"ll ,hua he is but the srnallest link in the evolution of Nature, or

God.As he sits n()w at the edge of the abyss where all his hopes and

his dreams have been swallowed Lrp, Odysseus' hair turns whitewith agony. He rages against a god who has made the world so

imperflct ihur .ttut-t it forced into an attempt to perfect it himself.

His mind marches on beyond all sorrow or ioy or hope' He falls

now into the .,terror of thor,rght," into an inner contemplation that

blazes with light. He identifies himself now with all of Nature,

with snakes and the grass, with the ruthless laws of death and

destruction. with insects and fruits and flowers, with all animate

and inanimate things. His feet flow like a river; morning glories

twine themselves about his body; nightingales perch on his head

and burst into song; fireflies come and glow in his beard all nightlong; and h" ..r-"s to a tragic acceptance of life as it is, but he

u.."pa, this with joy, and blesses each of his five senses' He

blesses his restless search: "My soul," he cries olrt, "your voyages

have been your native land!"Now Death becomes his constant companion' Stooping with

humility, he kisses Mother Earth and accepts the entire universe,

both good an<i evil. He has now become a famous ascetic

throughout Africa, and as he begins his long trek through the

heart irf that clark continent toward its most solrthern tip, he

meets on the way various representatives of various ways of life'

One day he sees approaching the caravan of a mighty Prince' the-

type of Budclha. This young man had once seen fearful signs of

-un', d".uy. He had seen a beautiful y()ung man dead in the

prime of life. He had seen disease ravaging the body of an. old^ma.t:

ar-rd now he roams the world in anguish, seeking to lind the

answers to evil, to decay, to death' til/hen the Prince wants to

know what happens to the body when a man dies, his slave tries

to dissuade him from finding out, blrt when the Prince insists, the

slave answers that the corpse is eaten up by six waves of worms'

and the Prince weeps, unable to accept such horror. He begsOdysseus to give him sorne hope that he might not see the face ofdeath in all things, but Odysseus replies that he and the Princehave looked beyoncl the gods, beyond hope, and into the face ofdeath, but whereas the Prince sinks nerveless to the ground, "I,"says Odysseus, "I hold death like a black banner, and march on."Then in one of the strongest lines in the Odyssey, Odysseus says:"Death is the salt that gives to life its tasty sting!" Without theconstant presence of death we should never know the value andbeauty of life.

Soon afterward, OdysseLrs meets the famous courtesan, Mar-garo. He tells her that there are seven secret paths to salvation:through the mind, the heart, silence, activity, despair, war, andlove, and that she has chosen the last, that which strives to rnergeopposites, male and female. And what is the love act in itself butthe two dualities, male and female, trf ng to become one in actualbodily penetration as well as in soul, that which in ecstasy tries tobreak down the barriers of flesh? \When Odysseus asks Margaro forthe distillation of all her experience, she replies that she tells herlovers: "In all this wretched world, only you and I exist." Andagain: "Beloved, I feel at length that you and I are One. " ButOdysseus sadly replies that there is a thircl synthesis: "Even thisOne, O Margaro, even this One is empty air. " Odysseus rejectsBuddha's nihilism and Margaro's affirmation. Buddha cannot lifthimself above the grave and Margaro cannot soar above the flesh.Odysseus affirms the tragic joy of life.

And now he comes t() an ascetic who all his life long has pur-sued the eternal questions: Why were we born? For what pur-pose? Toward what goal? But now that he is dying, he regrets hisascetic and abstemious life, his search fcrr God, and he wishes,instead, that he had lived like a mighty king, or like a great lover,or like a powerful conqueror. \flhen he dies, his hand stretchesout avidly for more, unsatisfied; and when the villagers corre tobury him, they find they cannot make the hand bend or the palmclose. Odysser.rs tells them that the hand will not close until theyhave filled it with their dcarest treasure. Each interprets accordingto his idea of what constitlrtes treasure. The elders cast gold intothe thirsty palm, but it will not close. The chieftains cast thebronze keys of their city, the young men their gleaming weapons,but the hand will not close. Mothers pour in their tears, maidenstheir kisses, and a child comes and on the little finger of thegrasping hand hangs its only toy. But the hand will not close, andyou begin t<r wonder: what will Odysseus, what will Kazantzakisfind that will make the hand close? Oclysseus stoops, gathers Lrp a

18 I9

bit of earth, places it in the avid palm, and it closcs, satisfied at

last: "Dust thou art. and to clust thou shalt return."He meets a Tragic King who tries c<> escapc from the confines of

his narrow kingdom, but lvho finds otrt that his realm is an island,and beyond its botrndaries alu'ays roars the vast, infinitc sea ofannihilation. He realizes that man is firrever catrgl-rt in the rotrncl,cyclical trap of his olr'n cxistencc, of his given mind' his givenlirnitations.

He meets Prince Elias rvho, despairing of ever becoming King,longs to be immortalized as a singer, a p()et, but whcn he strikesup his lyre, all ol'its seven strings rcmain silcnt. Hc learns tl-rat inorder For the lyre to sing it must be stccpecl in the bltxrd of his

seven s()tls. Onc by <>nc he leads his s()ns t() battle, and one by one

he drenches cach of the seven strings in his sons' blood. Noq'when he strikes the lyre, it bursts ()Llt int() ecstirtic song. Odysseus

discovers that only tl-rrotrgh tragedy can lnan rise to sotrg.

He meets Captain Sole, the type of l)on Quixote, wh<> has

stracldlcd his decrepit camel, Lightr.ring, taken trp his rustcdsrvord ancl armor, ancl has sallied ollt to savc the rvorld fromslavery and injusticc. He has been captured by carrnibals' b<>uncl

to a stake by the vcry slavcs he sorrght to frec ancl is now beingprepared for dinner. Odysseus saves this intrepicl soul, but as soon

as Captain Sole is releascd, he dashes ()nce rn()re t() save thc slaves,

who will again bind him to a stakc t() prcpare him f<rr clinner'()dysseus aclmires this rash and rebellious hcart, this irnaginationthat dares to go bcyond the possible, and yet he spurns it, for itclu'ells far from reality ancl practicality in a land of vi'ish-fr,rlfillment ancl fzrntasy only. Hc wishes Captain Solc rl'ell, andplods on, meeting ()ther rcpresentative typcs.

He mects the Lorcl of tl-re Tovv'cr, a heclonist x'ho believes thatbest of all is the ttnconcerned, thc uncomrnittcd rnind that flitsfrom flox'er t() Ilo$.'cr, strcking Ltp the s\\'eets of existence' butnever becon-rcs involvcd in life itself. Odysseus splrrns this man as

the last clregs of a decadent existence.

Fle encounters an old Negro chicftain vvho is ptlrstrecl and slainin a dark forest by his tu'elve sons, ancl who eat Lrp their fatl-rer bitby bit. Each son eats that p()rti()n of his father u'hich contains thestrcn{ath hc *'ould himself desire t<> p()ssess: the eyc f<rr keensight, the car ftrr scnsitive hcaring, thc hand f<rr brawny strength.You must not be horrified by this, f<rr this is rvhat u'c all do rvhenwe [l() t() communion, but in a more civilized firrm, *'hen we eat

the vvaf-er and drink thc s.ine, the body and blood of Christ, inorder t<.r obtain the strength of the Savior. As Odyssetts watches,

he feels that he, too, in distant ages long pasr, had once killed hisown father.

Finally, after months of trekking, he comes to the ocean on rhesolrthernmost tip of Africa, and as he proceeds at night to a bus-tling harbor to$..n, he watches a strange and religious procession.He is told that some Cretans, who have been shipwrecked andhave settled here, arc noq' celebrating their nell' Gocl. Some callhim the Slayer, some call him the Savior, some call him the Mes-siah, but, he is told, the priests in rheir secret rituals call him

-Odysserrs! In ironic mockcry, Oclysseus exclar'ms:

I've been rcduced to a god that rvalks the earth like myth!O wretched soul of man, you can't stand fiee on earthor walk upright, unless yorr n'alk q'ith fcar ()r h()pe.When q'ill companion sorrls like mine come down to earthl

Onc clay Odysscr,rs warchcs some black fishermcn hauling intheir catch, and among them he hears a yorrng lisher lad speakingof one eternal Father who is Love, of the earth as a parh rhat leadsto Hcaven. Another fisherman replies that all this is nonsense,unrealistic; that injustice rules the world rather, and nor love; tharevil thrivcs. Br-rt the fisher boy softly answers thar if someone\l'ere t() strike l-rim on ()ne cheek, he would turn the other. Odys-seus says to himself rhat even this puny boy will defend himself ifI strike him. He then hits the boy hard on onc cheek, but to hisamazement the boy cloes indeed meekly turn rhe other cheek.Odyssetrs is terrified at this new, revoltrrionary iclea in the world:the idea that yr>u rnay retllrn good for evil, love for hate. The twosit down t()gether by the edge of the sea, Odysseus and the blackJesus Christ, and conversc all night long. Odysserrs upholds thepath of war and strife, the negro lad of love and peace, of anultimate realm where man ancl God merge into One. Odysseusreplies that even this Onc is empty air, but rhc negro lad insiststhat only this final One is real. ()dysseus acclrses the boy <>f lovingonly thc soul of man, whereas he loves the flesh of man also, hisstench, thc earth, even death. Odysseus denies that the soul hasany value apart From the flesh, f<rr it must evolve in and throughthe flesh. They part affectionately ar dawn.

ln the meantimc, C)clysseus has built his lasr boat, a kind ofEskimo kayak. When he linishes it, he sees rhat it resembles acoffin. Hc realizes that he will now embark on his last voyage, andhe exclaims that he has meastrred his own bocly, his heart andmind, the earth and sky, fear and love, the greatest happiness, the{areatest pain, and that all his measurements have c()mc to this: thecoffin. He n()w sets sail tovr..ard the South Pole. and for a while

i

2l

lives among primitive people in a land of ice. Their gods are once

again the primordial gods of Hunger and Fear and Cold. When he

asks an old chieftain that highly sophisticated question' "t[Vhat do

you want out of life?," the old man gapes in astonishment at such

a stupid question, and replies: "To eat!"Vhen the spring thaw comes, Odysser-rs bids these people

farewell, and paddles away in his kayak. But as he waves from a

distance, he sees that the ice splits open' gapes wide, and he

watches in horror as all his friends and all their possessions are

plunged into an icy abyss, exactly as his own Ideal Gty had been so

iuthlessly swallowed up. Kazantzakis never permits us to forget

the gaping annihilation that awaits us all, individually or together.Finally Death comes, in person, and sits on the prow of Odys-

seus' little skiff. Odysseus welcomes him like an old and faithfulfriend, for who, or rather' what is Death? Death is your ownbody, your own flesh, you yourselves, for as the first centuryphilosopher, Manilius, once informed us, we begin a paralleljourney in life together with Death from the moment we have

been conceived in our mother's womb. S/herever Odysseus has

some mark on his body, Death has an identical mark on his owntwin body. Death is our mirror image. As the two old cronies

converse, Death turns into a Black Swan, into Dante's \White

Rose, and behind the White Rose there looms a huge iceberg,Odysseus' last ship of death. His kayak crashes on the iceberg; he

clings to it with blooded fingernails and toenails; the cold South

Wind strips him bare, and he now realizes that this is the momentof his death. He cries out to all those with whom in life he has

lived through some intense relationship, friend or foe. They hear

him and come running from all the ends of the earth to keep himcompany on his last voyage. If they have died, like Kentaur, theyrise out of their graves, gathering up their moldering flesh, wipingaway the worrns from their eyelids. All run to bring him comfort'Some fly through the air, others speed over the water: Buddha and

Margaro, Rala and Christ, Kentaur and Orpheus, Hardihood andRocky, Helen and Diktena. From his island home of lthaca,neither his wife Penelope, nor his son Telemachus hear his cry,

but only his dog, Argos, who leaps out of his grave and runs,barking, to meet his master.

And finally his three godfathers come, Tantalus, and Heracles,

and Prometheus, and stand like three tall masts on his ice ship ofdeath. For this last moment of death Kazantzakis has found one ofhis most beautiful images. You have all seen a flame leap from itswick, leap from its body, the candle, and for a brief moment hangsuspended in the air bef<rre it vanishes forever. In this eternal

moment of the suspended candle flame, the entire twenty-fourthbook of the Odyssel takes place in a kind of wild, Wagnerianoperatic scene. Here is the image:

As a low lantern's flame flicks in its 6nal blazethen leaps above its shriveled wick and mounrs aloftbrimming with light, and soars toward Death with dazzling ioy,so did his fierce soul leap before it vanished in air.

Odysseus' companions now hang on the three tall masts rhepomegranates and the grapes and the figs of Greece, and as Odys-seus plunges his face and body in rhe fruir, he dies. Here is rhepassage:

Erect by his mid-mast amid the clustered grapes,the prodigal son now heard the song of all return,and his eyes cleansed and emptied, his full heart grew light,for Life and Death were sonfas, his mind the singing bird.He cast his eyes about him, slowly clenched his teeth,then thrust his hands in pomegranates, figs, and grapesuntil the twelve gods round his dark loins were refreshed.All the great body of the world-roamer rurned to mist,and slowly his snowship, his memory, fruit and friends,drifted like fog far down the sea, vanished like dew.Then flesh dissolved, glances congealed, the heart's pulse stopped,and the great mind leaped to the peak of its holy freedom,fluttered with empty wings, then upright through the airsoared high and freed itself from its last cage, its freedom.All things like frail mist scattercd, till but one brave cryFor a brief momenr hung the calm, benighted waters:"Forward, my lads, sail on, for Death's breeze blows in a fair wind!"

Eadier in this talk I said that later I would speak to you of thevision Odysseus saw on the mountain's peak and what were thenew commandmcnts he received rhere from his god. These areembodied in Books XIV and XVI of the Odyssel and more fullydelineated in Tbe Sariors of God: Spiritual Exercises. In thesebooks Kazantzakis declares rhat a man has Three Duries. TheFirst Duty of man is to follow the mind, for it is the mind thatimposes order on disorder. It formulates the laws without whichwe cannot live as a community; it is the rational system of things,that which builds bridges and institutions, which sets up rationalboundaries beyond which the mind itself dares not go. It is logic,shape, form, patrern Leometry, Iaw, and may remind us of EdnaSt. Vincent Millay's lovely line, "Euclid alone has looked on beautybare."

But the Second Duty of man is to go beyond the mind and tofollow the heart, for the heart admits of no boundaries. It yearns

22 23

to smash all frontiers, to pierce beyond all phenomena. It wants t<r

merge with something beyond mind and matter; it has one f()ot onthe cliff and the other foot dangling over the abyss.

The Third Duty of man, howcver, is to go beyond the hope

which the mind and heart seem to offer. Man must free himselffrom the hope that thc mind can indeed impose order on disorder,that the heart can indeed find or.rt the essence of things, and thenhe must fight on, with<>ut hope or salvation of any kind. He must

say that nothing exists, neither life nor death, and he mlrst accept

this necessitlt bravely; indeed, with exultation and song. So fhr as Iknow, only the ancicnt Greeks had a goddess I'hom thcy named

Necessity, Anange. Becausc Kazantzakis s() str()nlaly emphasizes

the ultimate annihilation that awaits us all, many think of him as a

clespeiado, as a nihilist; but he is not, f<rr he insists that exactly onthis annihilating abyss man mlrst brritcl thc aflirmative srnrcrLrrc oF

his lifc. FIe must say the almighty "Yes!" over that other almighty"No!," and then he must build over this abyss in an ecstacl'oftragic joy.

After these Three Duties, a rnan is thcn prepared t() undertake a

pilgrimage of Four Steps. At the start of his journey, he hears an

agor.rized cry within him shouting for help. His First Stcp,therefore, is to plunge N'ithin himself, into his own Ego' into his

own uniqtreness, ftrr we are all the products of a hcritage and of an

cnvironment we ncver chose fbr ourselves. $7e never chose ourpafents ()r ()Llr c()untfy, nor the century into which lve shouldhavc liked to have been born. N7e never chose the religious or thepoliticat credos \\'e accept on fhith since infancy. Ve bccorne theproducts of certain glands, brain matter, cnvir()nmentl and 1'ct,

nevertheless, we feel that clown deep beneath all these layers ofgiven flesh, time, and place, something uniquely <>ur ()rl'n lieshiclden. Perhaps in early adolescence, in our collcgc years' \\'e tryto frrrm ()Llr true selves, olrt ()f time and out of space, an icleal self.\We feel that wc are agonizingly unicltre. We pass beftrrc a mirrorancl u'e fail to recognize the reflectior-r, firr in t>ur inncr reflectionwe are s()mething utterly different. We feel otrr bodies to be pris-ons c()mposed of flesh, bloocl, veins, ncrves

- dr-rngeons in u'hich

olrr true sclves havc been abandoned. Often my students c()tne t()

me in despair, in humiliation, in tttter self-abnegatiot'r, and I be-

come furiotrs with them. I tell them: "But each <lf you is t'rtterly

unique. Nothing like y<>tr has evcr existecl in dre entire universc,ancl nothing like you shall evcr exist again You may be ahorrible example of q'hat is trnique

- [lq1 trniquc you are!"

Man's First Srcp, then, is to ph,rnge deep clor.r.n within himselfrntil he disc'vers tlrat u'hat is cry'ing o.r within himse.lf f<rr salva-tion is the very cndangered spirit of (iod Hirnself

- er what man

has hithcrto designatecl with rhat word ,.God." \When I askedKazantzakis why he so often trsecl a word so worn and corrodeclwith c..venti.', he replied, m()sr bcauriflrlly, I think, that it isthe most u'.trncled 'r,r.'.rd in hist'ry and deserves this hcln.r. Inorder to frce this endangerccl spirit of God wirhin himself. a manm.st c()nsider himsclf t. be s.lely resp.nsiblc firr the salvari'n ,fthe worlcl, fr>r when a man dies, the uniqtre play of his n.indcrashcs into rtrin firrever.

In his Seconcl Step, a lr-ran ntllst ph.rnge bcyoncl his cgo and int<rhis racial origins. He mtrst consicler that he comes fiom ()ne par_ticrrlzrr race, fi.m ()nc particlrrar traditi.n in hist()ry; that he is als<runicl.ely a Jew, .r a Greck, .r zr Hindtr, .r a Black. He mtrstsearch am()ng his racial ancest()rs to find those spirits who mayhelpr him towarcl a greater refinemenr of spirit, toward more andmrrre light. Like the Oclyssctrs in Homer,s Odltssey, he mtrst de_scend int<> Haclcs in orcler to speak to the shades of lris anccstralcleacl; but he musr choose ruthlessly am()ng them. He must, forinstance, sav "Yes" to Aristotle and ,,No" to plato; .,yes,, to Sap_pho" ancl "No" to Pirrdar; ,.yes', to Acschylr.rs ancl ,,No,,

t<rEuripides

- or vicc vcrsa. -FIc must then pass ()n tl-ris kn<>wlec.lge

to his chilclrcn and enc()uragc them t() reach him ancl to,.,.1r,..,him.

_ In his Thircl Step a man must plunge beyond his ego, bcyondhis ,*'n partic.lar race, ancl int. the races .f all mankincl. Hemust acknon,ledge l-rirnself as belonging t() the species m.tr,; thatin his bkxrd thcre is n()thinla plrrc; that tl-rr.trgh his vcins fl.r,r.,s thebl..cl .f Black, 'f Jcu', <>f Greck, .f Hinclrr, .f H'ttcnt.t: thebl..cl .f all races frrlr. the m.st simplc r() the m()st c.mplex; anclthen he musr embrace the races .f all ma'kind r.r'ithin himself inthe struggle t<> liberate the spirit of Grd within l-rimself that isshorrting lirr help.

Ancl novi'you rvonclcr: rl.hat can Odysseus, u,har canKazantzakis possibly fincl as thc For.rrth Stcp, that gocs bcyondmankir-rd itsclf? Btrt Kazantzakis insists, that jrrst u, o ,'ur-,,r-r.,rag. bey.nd his

'rincl zrncl his heart, beyr'cl lr.pe, bey.ncl his raceanci the raccs of all rnankincl, he mrrst also plur-rge bcyond man_ki.d itself ancl bec.me icle'tificcl rvith alr .f ma*cr. rvith thecntirc trnivcrse. Hc i.sists that therc is 'r. distincti.n betrveenanimatc a'cl inanimatc ma*cr, that man nrust thercfirre idcntifvhimself u'ith earth and st.ne anc.l sea, witl-r plants, animals, inlsects' ancl birds, with tlre vital imptrlse .f all creati.n in all

24 25

phenomena. Each man is a fathomless, a bottomless composite ofatavistic roots that plunge down deep into obscure and primordialorigins. A man must now enter into a mystic communication withthe entire universe. S7e have all felt like this to some degree orother, perhaps often when walking along the oceanside at mid-night, when we hear the pounding of the surf beating in rhythmwith the pounding of our hearts, or when we l<xrk Lrp at the starsand remember George Meredith's immortal line describing thewheeling of the stars in their orbits: "That army of unutterablelaw." It is then we 6nd that the wheeling of the stars in theirorbits, the pounding of the sea, and thc potrnding of our heartsare all one rhythm, are all one universe. This is what Kazantzakismeans, this mystical communication.

But for Kazantzakis it is nota that man is prepared to go evenfurther still, beyond the mind, the heart, beyond hope, beyond hisego, his race, the races of all mankind, beyond all phenomena,and plunge into what he calls a Vision of the Invisible walking onall things visible. The essence of this Invisible, according toKazantzakis, is an agonized ascent toward more and more purityof spirit, toward more and more light. The goal is the very strug-gle itself, and this evolutionary ascent is endless.

In this conception, God is not a perfect and complete Being,there, somewhere out in timeless space; but God is a spiritualconcept which is itself evolving toward purity as man himselfevolves. If I am not mistaken, modern theologians have recentlycome to this position, unaware, I suppose, that poets have knownabout it for centuries.

ln this c()nception, God is not All-Holy. He is pitilcss. Hechooses only the best, only those who are strong enough to slrr-vive. He does not care either for men or ideas or virtues. Heexploits them all frrr a moment; He manipulates them in a never-ceasing, evolutionary struggle to create something finer, morespiritual, but in His agonized attempt He smashes thcm and tricsto free Himself for further, more spiritlral creations. Our earthsince its inception has seen more than one hundrecl millionspecies, and already ninety-eight per cent of these have irretrieva-bly vanished in God's, or Nature's, constant turmoil of creativeevolution.

In this conception, God is not All-Knowing. His head is a

confused jumble of light and dark. He crics olrt to man to helpHim, because man is, in the present stage of evolution, the holiestcarrier of God. Man is God's highest spiritual reach thus far, in thepresent stage of man's and God's evolution. God cannot be saved

unless man tries to save Him by struggling with Him; nor can manbe saved unless God is saved. It is in this sense that man is theSavior of God. On the whole, according to Kazantzakis, it is manwho must save God.

When a man has had this vision of the spirit that is alwaysstruggling, always evolving, always unsatisfied, shouting for help,he must then try to give it body in deed and in action, in art,institutions, science, law, even in political action, but he musttealize that any such attempt necessarily pollutes the vision, thatthe thing rcalized is always

- but alruays

- abetrayal of the thing

envisaged. And yet man must accept this imperfectabiliry of hisand must struggle with it in a never-ending and ever-ascendingbattle.

The entire theme of Tbe Sauiors of God and of the Odyssey is, asyou have seen: $Vhat

- nor $(rho

- but What is God? Vhat is

Freedom? The essence of God is the atternpt to find freedorn, tothrow off all regional shackles that impede our onward progressin the universe. \7e must never be content with the dogmas andcredos given us by the accident ofour birth in a cerrain cenrury, ina particular time and place on this earth, but we musr try to breakthrough the narrow confines of faith, whether in religion, in poli-tics, in economics, whether the ties of home or country or tradi-tion, and like an eagle view rhe world from as high a perspectiveas we can; and we must even beware lest the pursuit of freedomitself does not petrify into mechanical action. $/e must say toourselves that no ultimate freedom, no ultimate salvation exists,and then we mlrst accept this with heroic pessimism, with eroticstoicism, with rragic joy.

Kazantzakis is buried on top of one of the bastions which arepart of the old Venetian wall surounding the city of Iraklion inCrete where he was born. The tomb itself is hewn out of blackCretan marble, jagged, crude, cracked, and unpolished, sur-mounted by a tall, simple cross composed of two unplanedbranches of a Cretan tree. And there you will find no name todesignate who lies there, you will find no date of birrh or death.You will only find this legend carved on bronze:

do not hope firr anything,do not Fear anything,am free.

According ut Kazantzakis, the forces that drive us on are not theforces of justice, of kindness, of plenty, of peace. The forces thatdrive us on are those of injustice, of cruelty, of hunger, of war. It

26 27

is man's eternal glory and his nobility that it is be.who has createdthe concepts of justice, of kindness, of plenty, of peace, and it isby this definition that he is the holiest carrier of God, is God'shighest spiritual reach, thus far. Nature, or God, are indifferent tothese concepts, for they are purely the creations of man himself

-although, of course, man is himself one of the infinite products ofNature, or of God. God is never created out of happiness orcomfort, but out of tragedy and strife. The greatest virttte is not tobe free, but to struggle unceasingly for freedom.

Finally, Kazantzakis ends with an irnage, a symbol. The uni-verse, he says, is a blossoming Tree of Fire. Fire is the first and thelast mask of Cod, and at the very summit of this Tree of Fire therebursts into blossom a frnal fruit. The final fruit of flame, says

Kazantzakis, is light. And one day the entire universe will vanishinto the deepest and rnost distilled essence of the spirit where allcontradictions shall at last be resolved, and this is the quintes-sence of silence. For as Hamlet says in dying, "The rest is silence. "

Now I must inform you of a most strange, of a most mysteriouscoincidence. Odysseus is obviously Kazantzakis' autobiographicalhero. All of his books are in some sense a personal confession.Kazantzakis has brought Odysseus to die near the South Pole, butwhen he was last in China he was given smallpox and typhoidiniections in Canton on his way to Tokyo. Because he had beensuffering from lymphoid leukemia during the past eight years,these injections poisoned his right arm. He kept this hidden fromhis wife, until in Tokyo it became too obvious to be hidden anylonger. The wor,rnd was turning into gangrene. $/ith death now inhis veins, Kazantzakis was flown across the North Pole toward hisultimate death in a clinic in Freiburg.

Odysseus died near the South Pole, and Kazantzal<ts carrieddeath in his veins over the North Pole. It is alrnost as though hewilled such a death for himself, for between the two of them,thus, at the earth's two poles, at the earth's antipodes

- or so I

Iike to think -

they held between themselves the entire wodd ina loving, a living, an intense embrace.

ln the opening of the twenty-third book of the Odyssey, Kazant-zakis has written an epitaph ftrr his autobiographical hero that intruth best suits himself. I should like to see it engraved in marbleand erected by the side of his solitary grave in Iraklion. It reads:

Great Sun, flood down into his bowels, turn all the wormsto tholrsands of huge crimson-golden butterflies!In a great blaze of wings and light, in salt embrace,

28 29

make Death come riding down astride a gallant thought!Let Death come down to craven heads ancl slavish soulswith his sharp scythe and barren bones, but let him cometo this lone man like

^ great lord to knock with shame

on his 6ve famous castle doors, and with great aweplunder whatever dregs that in the ceaseless strifeof his staunch body he had not found time to turnfrom flesh and bone into pure spirit, lightning, deeds, and joy.The Archer has fooled you, Death, he has squandered all your goods,melted down all the rusts and rots of his foul fleshtill they escaped you in pure spirit, and when you comeyou'll find but trampled lires, embers, ash, and fleshly dross.

I(ruoN Fmen

Salvador Dali: "Homage to Homer: The Return of LJlysses"

SUPPLEMENT

FE$T LETTERS FROM NIKOS KAZANTZAKISTO KIMON FRIARI

l. Kimon Friar in "The Medusa,"2 poros, Greece

Villa ManolitaAntibesJuly l, l95t

Dear Friend,. . What did I want to express in the Odysselt? The only answer is:

whatever I expressed in rny Spirituol Exerciies,i my ,.Credo.,, But inregard to this Prevelakis{ can explain better than I. Because, as youknow, a poer knows less about his work than a good reader. Ghika alsoknows the Odlssey well, and wharever he says ca*rries weight. Best of allwould be, if at all possible, for us ro meet; it would give t" g."ut j,ry t,,receive you here in my home where you may remainlt," u, rnlrry duy, u,y.u like, f<rr it now seems ro me rather diflicult to come to Greece in thenear_.furure. I would very much like to help you and to speak to you aboutthe Odyssey, in which I have placed all my i<irrows, my joys, -y.t".,ggl"r,and my salvation. But I find it difficult t'speak about myselfj perh-als ifwe meer, and an "arm.sphere of confession" is created beiween us, I shallbe ableto speak. I am happy to know that yotr have the Od1sse1t, that youare.reading_it, and that yolr want to translate a few of it,,".r"".- o."iuyperhaps I shall be able t. realize my keenest desire: t. see ail of it trans-lated int<l English free verse; it,s the only language which can render itwith concentration and brilliance.

Yours,N. Kazantzakis

A

I Taken from about a hundred letters, twenty-two of which, including these,have appeared in "A Unique Collaboration; Translating Tbe Odysey: A- Modern!?Lel' by Kimon Frir, Journal d Modun Literature (Nikos Kaianizakis SpecialNumber), 2. 2 (197 t-197 2)t 215-244.

2 The name of Friar's cottage ()n the island of poros in the Saonic Gulf, namedafter a collage of Medusa made for him by the Greek artist Nik", H;iik;;;"k"r:Ghika and imbedded into the wall above the lintel of the lront door. It wre Ghikawho frrst inroduced Friar to the Odyssell: his thirty_five illustrations f<rr the poemappear in Tbe odyssel: A Modem sequel (New yo.k: simon and Schuster, l-95g).

Silkent !Jnivcrstffii i,r,rj:t.V

33

2. Kimon Friar in Athens

AntibesAprtl 16, 1955

Dear Kimon,I have found time at last to look at yours translation line by line, and

now send you a note ()n very few things.I derived great ioy from reading your translation; it is not a translation

but a recreation. Your strength, your language, and your rhythm is agreat accomplishment. It seems to me that at times yoll surpass theoriginal, and I thank you very much. No one in the entire world couldhave done anything beter for me; ifthe Odyssel is ever to be saved, I shallowe it to you, because it would go r-rnjustly lost if it remained in Greek.May your heart remain always as healthy and warm as it is, and your mindalways luminoLrs. Ler's hope that I, too, shall remain in health that I maylive to see the Odltsselt published in English.

I have only this to tell you: what great happiness Book I gave me, whata miracle your work is. I'm now waiting ftrr Book II. I wonder when thetime will come when I shall be writing you: I,m waiting for Book XXIV?

I clasp your hands with love and gratirude.N. Kazantzakis

How much I should have liked to have heard your talks! Many havewritten me that they were superb. Will you publish them perhaps?G. \We miss you herc very much during these beautiful and sunwasheddays.

Health and joy and srrengrh and love,N.

3 see The saairs of God: spiritual Exercises by Nikos Kazantzakis. translatedwith an Introduction by Kimon Frir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 196l).

a Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek author and friend of the poet. See his N/losKazantzakis and His Odltssel: A Study of the poe, and tbe poem, tratslated by philipSherrard with a Preface by Kimon Frir (New york: Simon and Schuster, i96l)-

5 During their collaborati'n, and in his letters to Friar afterward, K^zantzakisalways addressed Friar in rhe familia singular. An extraordinarily shy man, hemrely addressed anyone in the singular, nor even his dearest friend, prevelakis,nor his beloved wife, Helen.

6 Kazantzakis is referring to an earlier version 'f the talk which has finally seen

publicatirn in these pages, and which in earlier versions Friar delivered in manyparts <>f Greece, both in English and in Greek.

3. Kimon Friar in AthensAntibesJune 6, 1955

My dear Kimon,Conqueror of Cretel N/hat an upheaval you have caused! What atriumph that was, and how wonderfully y.r.,'hur. conquered our greatisland with your words! I have read all thenewspapers you senr me.and I've received a flood of letters that rell -" h,* t.u.,tifulty you spoke,how deeply you moved all the Cretans, and how, wherever y.;;*..r;, ;.r;saw and conquered.

^ I am deeply happy because in this way our rwo names will be joined sofraternally and with such splendor. Wiih deep emotion I have read yourletter many times where.you recount everyrhi;g so well. And I am happythat yolr have become friends with my .reph"* Nikos and with all'myrelatives. The photographs are superb,'b.,t I cr.rrr,rt recoLnrze my parer_

nal home; it has become a ruin, and my sister a ruin also, *h,, *u, a.rah ,h.eautiful girl in hcr y()uth. I do .r.,t f"u. death, I loathe the body,s de_cline.

.All during these days Helen and I have been talking about yourtriumphal campaign in Crete, and our happiness und ".ri,rti.r.,

i, pro_found. There is no such thing as chance, th..e ir,rrrty Destiny; for it wasfated that you should come from America and that you should have foundin your yourh what I discovered only after mtrch struggle; and that weshould be agreed on rhe greatest and most basic problems of man, hisfate, and his art. I am positive that you will go beyond the summit whereI have stopped, and that you will proceed mJch f.,rther. you have what Ilack, and in particular you have yor-rth. I am happy that I will now die inpeace because I shall leave on this earth u -un yo..rg.r and better than I.All th_is gives me great happiness _ I think thut fo, a spirit'al man nogreater happiness exists.May you be well always,

I thank you and clasp your hand,N. Kazantzakis

4. Kimon Friar at "The Medusa," poros. Greece

AntibesAugust 23, t9j5

Our dear Kimon,. . I_wanr one rhing only: that the rranslarion be done by you, be_

cause only thlls may I be certain that the translati()n .u., be..r-. er..,better than the original. My happiness when I read your English verses is

3435

very great. Only your collaboration can render whatever beauty there is inthe Odjtssel. I want one thing only: that the translation be com-pleted as soon as possible in order that I may live krng enough to see itand take joy in it.? . . I am still receiving letters from everywhere inGreece describing with what loy and emotion everyone listened to yourwords on the Od1tsse1. In the parched provinces of Greece your words felllike the first spring rain. Ycxr must know this: that you are mygreatest hope' Always

N. Kazantzakis

5. Kimon Friar at "The Medusa." Poros. Greece

{AntibeslSeptember 12, 1955

My Dear Kimon,. . The work is great and difficult, and only you in the world can do

it to perfection; fcrr this reason we both must do whatever we can that itmay be completed quickly and well. I have written you, and I repeat; youare ml last bope.6 .

rJ/hat happiness it would be ifyou could pass through Antibes on yourway to America- $7e would talk and we would agree on everlthing. Youwould give us inexpressible joy. You now belong to us: I would neverhave accepted anyother son but you.e Our meeting in that Florentine villahad a deep meaning. I had guessed it immediately; but now I am certain.Keep my love, dear Kimon, and keep well.

N. Kazantzakis

6. Kimon Friar in Athens

AntibesFebruary 2, l9t6

Beloved, immortal Kimon,You can't imagine with what joy I received your new verses. I see that

you are able to work now,tu that the holy rhythm has once more entered

7 Kazantzakis lived to see and verify the complete translation, but died a yearbefore its publication. His untimely death also robbed him of the Nobel Prize inLiterature.

8 These last words were written in English.e He was childless.roFrir had broken his leg in a motorcycle accident, had been hospitalized, and

was now convalescing.

into your life, that you have once more plunged into the deathless warersof poetry. No other salvation exi sts, no other reali ty gxi51s

- only poetry.

May you be well, the evil has passed, rhe holy Ascent begins again.Not a moment passes that I do not bring you into my mind urr.l h"u.,;

this world is a mystery, and mysterious the chemical affinities betweenmen. I always think it a great joy that we two met on this beloved crust ofearth.

I work, as always, as though I have over my head a master, a boss, witha whip in his hand. what shall we call rhis boss? Grd? certainlv not: let,ssay that he is the highest Summit of our souls.

Health, joy, and a good meeting!N. Kazantzakis

8. Kimon Friar in Melrose park

Illustrated postcard of a bird perched on a blossoming cherrybough.

7. Kimon Friar in Melrose park, Illinois

AntibesJune 5, t957

Dear Kimon,In a Few hours we shall leave for Berne-Mosc.w-(Lrina. Much conf.-

sion; I hope that cverything will turn out well.You are in America now, and God knows when we shall receive a letter

from you to lind out what you've done, how you are, how the New $/orldseems to you, and how you found your family.

Wc shall both write you from Moscow and China, but where can yollwrite us? Perhaps we can send yorr some address when we arriue there.

We think of you all rhe time and ask ourselves when we shall see vor,ragain. There's a possibiliry that we may come to America; I must notleave this earth with.ut seeing you, before I see rhe wrrk you have inmind, that I may rejoice in it. I am writing yotr hurriedly, in the midst ofluggage. Again I am taking the road to insanity which has always been forme the road to rhe highest wisdom.

A good encounter, Kimon!N. Kazantzakis

PekingJune 24, 1957

Dear K.imon,S/hat can you be doing? When shall we receive a letter from you? \S/e

shall be in Yugoslavia in August. \We bring you to mind, into our hearts.

36 37

every moment. You would like the yelkrw world here very much. I forcemy body to obey my soul, and thus I never tire. We shall return to Europevia the North Pole. I am saying farewell to all things' all things are sayingtheir farewell to me. Nevermore.r'The fairy tale is coming to an end.

L.ve' Nik.s

rr In English.

CRITICAL COMMENT ON THE ODYSSEY:A MODERN SEOUEL

These selections are culled from over one hundred and sixtyreviews and articles that have appeared in the United States andEngland on the publication of Kazantzakis' Tbe Odltssel: A ModernSequel as translated by Kimon Friar. The selections, condensed,were chosen on the basis of their source, whether periodical ornewspaper, and on the ability of the critic to judge as poer, writer,editor, translator, or specialist in the field of Classical or ModernGreek studies.

CECIL MAURICE BO$/RA, Greek Scholar, Vice-Chancellor ofOxford University, editor of Tbe Oxfird Book of Ancient GreekVerse, author rf Tbe Greek Experience, etc. ln Tbe London Ob-seruer, Sunday, Feb. 8, 1959. "In our time a most remarkable epichas been composed and is now presenred in an English o".rio.hardly less remarkable. Nikos Kazantzakis was one of the selectband of writers, like Tolstoy, Hardy, Rilke, and Conrad, whoescaped the notice of the electors to the Nobel prize. His novelsare among the most impressive of our time, but his most astonish-ing and original creation was his epic Odlssejt Such a book calledfor translati.n, but until Mr. Friar undertook the heroic task, itseemed unlikely that anyone would have rhe necessary knowl-edge, accomplishment, and courage to do it.

Mr. Friar's translation is a great achievement. He has reducedthe line to twelve or thirteen syllables [from seventeen], and thisis about as many as an English line can take. . He is scrupu-lously careful and accurate, understands the poem from inside,and has made it part of himself. His translation reads like anoriginal work, and yer he had added nothing to whar he has foundin the Greek. He has caught the tense, passionate, varied tone ofKazantzakis without falling into rhetoric or flatness.

[Kazantzakis has fused in Odysseus] a single Titanic characterwho seems to carry on his shoulders the fortunes of the humanrace and to embody its lowest and its highesr characteristics. yetthough Kazantzakis's Odysseus is a great deal larger than life, and

38 39

several times as natural, he is indisputably alive in his zest foraction and danger, his powerful apperires, his searching curiosity,his desire to find out the inner meaning of existence, his love oflife and his gradual discovery of what really matters mosr in it.

The story is of fascinating interest for its own sake. Kazantzakiswas not a novelist for nothing, and the bold invention which givessuch strength to his novels is at work inhrs Odyssey. The episodesare as exciting, unusual, dramatic and disturbing as we can wish,and we can never forecast what will happen next. "

In a letter to tbe publisbers, Sirnon and Scbuster, about tbe trans-lation:

"A most mastedy performance. Both a great memorial to agreat man and a most notable work of art in itself. Kimon Friarhas really caught the spirit and tone of the original, especially itsconcentrated power and fullness. This is one of the hardest thingsin the world to do, and he has done it with consummate skill.Nobody can now say it is impossible to know what Kazantzakis islike without knowing Greek, for Mr. Friar has given a real andtrue impression of it. But he has also created a work of art in itsown righr. In his English translation this great poem stands on itsown strength and has no weak spots or failures to sustain its tone.I have been in bed and read it slowly and carefully and wascontinually delighted not only by its faithfulness to rhe originalbut by its strength and independence. It is a great achievement,and the great poer would be delighted. "

MOSES HADAS, Jay Professor of Greek and Larin, ColumbiaUniversity, author of A History of Greek Literature, erc. Frontpage of the Neut York Herald Tribune Book Reaieu,, December 7,1958. "A stirring work of att, a majot achievement. Its enorrnoussweep justifies its spaciousness and irs concenrrations demand itsown energetic mode of discourse. Character, incident, andbackground, alike intense and passionate and sensual, are credibleand absorbing enough to engage interest for the narrative alone,but the contrapuntal technique, the ironies and ambiguities andevocations, enfold layers of meaning. . This Odyssey is valid asa poem because it is more economical as well as more effectivethan prose could be. It would not be, for the English reader,were it not for the extraordinary skill of Mr. Kimon Friar'sadmirable version. To hit the right vernacular tone where bookish-ness would be a distortion, to reproduce the brevity of ambiva-lence and especially of gnomic urterance where expansion wouldbe fatal, and to match Kazantzakis's own strength in melodious

and effortless verses without flagging through a poem longerthan the lliad and the Odltssey combined is no small feat."

DUDLEY FITTS, teacher of English at phillips Academy, GreekScholar, translaror of Tbe Birds, Antigone, Oedipas at Colonus,Oedipuy tbe King, Alcestis, Tlte Frogs, Agamemnon, etc. -F-rontpage of the NeuYorkTimes Book Reaieu,, Dec. 7, l9r8. ..A superband enormous poem . . Congratulations are in order, brt

^ho*shall we apportion them? Chiefly, to Kimon Friar, of course, for alabor that is itselfof epic dimensions . . of Mr. Friar's t.urrriatio.,I can only say that it reads magnificently. An accomplished poethimself, he knows exactly how to achieve the freshne'ss of di.tio'and cadence that distinguishes poetry from fustian, good transla_tion from indifferent. His taste is nearly faurtless. 5.r" cu., orrrygaze with admiration at passage after passage of noble

"loqr".rc.,and of elevation that transcends action urrJ ".rt"., th" ,"gio.r, oi

glory. A high argumenr grearly argued. "

EDITH HAMILTON, professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr College,atrthor of Tbe Greek Way, Honorary Citizen of Athens. tn u l"ti"rto the publishers March, 25, 1959: "I refer to Kimon Friar,s book,and I_do so advisedly, fbr it will never be read, in rny opir.io.r, u, utranslation. Its extraordinary success leaves no room for regret; Iknow of no orher translator who has been acclaimed as a p'oet inhis own right. "

JAMES A. NOTOPOULOS, professor of Classics, Triniry College,Hartford, Conn., author of Modern Greek Heroic Oral poetrl, Jtc.ln.T!e Virginia Quarterllt Reaieu, Spring, 1959. ,,Kazantzakis,

"pi: i: unique in giving the epic u ,*""p] a ritanic enlarl;ementand dimensions never seen before in the epic. In this he is at theopposite exrreme of Joyce's (Jlysses, who confines the dimensionsof his world to a petty day spent in Dublin. Epic sweep is thesustained rempo of Kazantzakis' epic; titanic objectives of thehuman spirit, titanic space co-ordinates in geography, history,and philosophy are ever present. This hugene* or r.r.Li, drctur"Jby the daemonic obsession of Kazantzar<is' hero t. use the humanspirit ro burst through the time-space limits of the Greek worrd,to destroy old and rotten civilizattns such as Crete and Egypr, tobuild new ones in the heart of Africa. . Like Ho_"r,s*Titrnr,who piled Pelion on Ossa to scale Olympos, s() or,rr hero confoundsthe, traditional planes of man and god, i"rar.ry, the ourworn godsand enthrones the human mind

"i th" ne* dioirriry.This is surely a srrange Odysseus. Homer,s denizen of Ithaca

40 4l

encounters gods, sleeps with goddesses, yet he still stays within themortal bounds of rhe golden mean

- there is man and there is

god. For Kazantzakis there is no golden mean, only goldenextremes. Man is god, did he realize his own divinity and theshadowy quality of time, space, Fate, the gods, even Death. Hereis a humanism that has never before been articulated with suchextremes.

Whereas Joyce manipulates the Odyssey myth ro depict theanarchy and futility of modern life, Kazantzakis manipulates it todepict the splendor and porentialities of the human spirit. In thishe is far closer to the Greek tradition as well as to rhe poeric intentof Homer himself. Thus one of the by-products of this translationwill be to offer students of contemporary literature an exercise inthe contrasred usage and the rich potentialities of the mythicalmethod to mirror the human spirit in its diverse moods.

Kimon Friar is to be congratulated on rhe translation. \il7her-ever I have sampled his version with the Greek text of Kazant-zakis, it reveals a poer translating a poer. His introduction andnotes enhance the poem as a scholarly edition."

GILBERT HIGHET, Professor of Classics, Columbia University,author of The Classical Tradition, etc. In Tbe Book-of-tbe-Monthtranscript of a radio talk given over the National BroadcastingCompany and 100 affiliated stations: "Mystics, poets, revolu-tionaries, Greek-Americans, pantheists, philhellenes, classicists,eroticists, and other-worldists should buy this book and begin toread it slowly and with relish . The poetry (so far as I canjudge from the translation) is remarkably original and stirring.From the first page to the last it is packed with imagery. Theimages are often mixed and incongruous; rhe poet does not care,for he hates logic and loves the hyperbolic and the impossible. Butthey are nearly always boldly original.

The emotions are as intense and improbable as the images. Ifyou have read Kazantzakis' novels, you will recall how his heroesare fabulously strong, prodigious drinkers and desperate fighters,supermen careless of convention and immune to fatigue, Hercu-lean lovers: one of them breaks three beds on his wedding night.The same is true of the characters in his Odysseji they lust andfight and travel and starve and laugh more like Tirans than likemen; their battles are equal to the fiercest Homeric combats or thegreat adventures of the modern Greek palikdri, ar'd their sensualpassions outdo anything in the tamer life of classical Greece. Fur-thermore, the entire poem is studded by dreams, and fables, andsymbols, and visions (some of them inspired by wild Greek

folklore) which takes us even further out ofthe frontiers ofreality.To read this poem is to go out on avoyage ofexploration, into theunknown and the unimagined.

But, you will ask, what does this all lead to? As we thread ourway through the dense maze of symbolism which fills the centraland later books, we see that Odysseus is an exceptional humansoul in search of truth. FIe passes through all these experiencesand savors them, to find out whether through them he can un-derstand life. He rejects first one solution after another, but hegoes on experimenting unril his death. The Odyssey ofKazantzakis, therefore, is a spiritual epic. In poetry, it belongsto the same class as the Diaine Comedl of Dante, Goethe's Faust,and the poem of the neglected Swiss genius, Karl Spitteler, calledOlympian Spring."

ANDONIS DECAVALLES, Poet, translator into Greek of T. S.

Eliot's Four Quartets, Professor of Comparative Literature, Fair-leigh Dickinson (Jniversity, Madison, New Jersey. ln Poetrlt,Chicago, 1959. "This modern epic is undoubtedly the greatestlong poem of our time, a colossal achievement in art and sub-stance. It is the mature product of Kazantzakis' deep familiaritywith the best in wodd literature and thought, of intense living,traveling, and thinking Odysseus never ceases to be thesupreme embodiment of Greece, its spirit of an unfailing faith inlife and freedom, of enrichment and rebirth through ever newexperiences. Yet the range in which Odysseus shapes and fulfillshis destiny in this new poem is far wider than when he gave us hisold, Homeric report. Three thousand years of further physical andspiritual exploration have passed since then.

Ithaca is not now the hero's own soul, the fulfillment of his ownbeing, a full self-conquesr as the supreme gain. \/hat appears asprogress through rejections is really a progress through conquestsand affirmations. Life is good and Death is good. The mirrorpower of the Quest is fire, the Sun, God, clarity, man's burningbody and heart and mind, wherein all things become one andpriceless, where all antitheses merge into a universal synthesis.$/hat a precious message of love to come in our time of disparity,what warm affirmation of life, not unrealistic, for a world ofanxiety, bitterness, disaffection, frenzied rejection or predilection.For the parti^I, here is the complete man offered, powerful andintegral, able to create his own fate against Fate, his Manhoodabove God.

Kimon Friar deserves unstinted praise for his achievement inthe translation of this poem. It was a colossal undertaking for

42 43

which the least thing to praise would be the extraordinary amountof dedication involved. His precise scholarship, but more, hisown poetic gift, has enabled him to produce what must be consid-ered an English Masterpiece. He has made the best possible choiceof his expressive media, the English iambic hexemeter, to pre-serve and recreate whatever could be preserved and recreatedfrom the original."

MAURICE DOLBIER, Critic, in Tbe Netu York Herald Tribune,Dec. 6, 1958. Generation aftergeneration of literary scholars willexplore the style and sources of this epic, while other students willinvestigate its religious and philosophical meanings, and otherpoets will draw inspiration from it for their own works. LikeShakespeare and Don Quixote, Prousr and Faust, Joyce and, MobjtDick, and the works of the writer of the first Odyssey, it is a bookthat takes root in the mind of man and grows and growsthere. It is a wonderful story full of strange advenrures onland, sea, and in the brain and bloodstream. Vhat no outline cansuggest is the spellbinding nature of the poem, its richness ofmetaphor, its sensuousness, its joy in the variousness and thesimplicities of life, its rapidity of pace, its bursting imaginative-ness. Through Kimon Friar's translation, a foreign masterworkhas become an English masterwork. "

JOHN CIARDI, Poet, Poetry Editor of Saturday Reaietu- InSatarday Reaieu, cover review, Dec. 13, 1958. "Tbe Odyssejt: AModern Sequel is not a book of the year, nor a book of the decade,but a monument of the age. [A poem] of true rnajesty, an epic ofHomeric stature. Kimon Friar has produced an English ver-sion that stamps him as a master translator in his own right."

CLIFTON FADIMAN, Member of the Board of Directors of theEncyclopaedia Britanica, editor of Tbe Life-Time Reading Plan,Tbe American Trea.surll, etc. In The Book of tbe Montb Club Neuts,1958. "Tbe Odyssey: A Modern Sequel is Nikos Kazantzakis' mas-terpiece. It is offered to English and American readers in a transla-tion by Kimon Friar of remarkable beauty and energy, with a styleuniquely and confidently its own. A remarkable tour de force.Kazantzakis' magnam opus n':.ay in time be ranked as fhr more thanthat. It has burning vitality and copiousness of imagination, andbehind every line one seems to feel the force of a major personal-ity." In a broadcast over rhe Columbia National Company, Dec.28, 1958: "If I were to choose the book of the year which seems rome to have the stature of a great classic and which may indeed be

remembered when you and I are no more, I would choose TbeOdlssey: A Modern Sequel."

MAX GISSEN, Book Review Editor, Time Magazine, for Dec. 8,1958. "Masterpieces of literature are hard to come by and evenharder to recognize. But in Tbe Odlssey: A Modern Sequel, chancesare that U. S. readers have a masterpiece at hand, in a fine transla-tion The poem is a huge repository of bloody adventure,eroticism, brutal sights and sounds, magnificent descriptions ofthe earth, sea, and sky, and all their wonders. Man's coarsestappetites and his noblest aspirations exist side by side in Odys-seus, and he is as ready to seduce a simple girl by pretending to bea god as he is to admit his doubts about himself and the humancondition. This is a book of singular power and beauty. TranslatorKimon Friar received from Kazantzakis the ultimate praise: thatthe translation was as good as the original. "

ARTHUR MILLER, Playwright, author of Deatb of a Salesman,Tbe Crucible, etc. ktrer to the publishers: "In reading Tbe Odys-se1: A Modern Sequel, one feels that this continlration has lain in thewomb of time all these centuries, and that of course it must nowbe shown to the world, but it has always been tbere. This epic hasa genuine rhythm of irs own; there is something sea-like in itspulse, in the riming of its events and their appearances. And bestof all, Odysseus ls thar thing, not quite a man ancl yet capable ofarousing the feelings reserved for things human in us. The poemis a great achievement."

\7. B. STANFORD, Regius Professor of Greek, Trinity College,Dr.rblin University, alrthor of Tbe LIllsses Tbeme, editot cf TheOdyssey of Homer, etc. "This is more rhan a magnificent, half-picaresque, half-symbolical story. It is a poem of unusual, ar timesmonstrous beauty in diction, imagery and rhythm. Mr. Friar'stranslation is an anlrazjng achievement, especially when we re-member how Homer's much simpler O\yssel has sr-rffered fromunfaithful or incompetenr rranslarors. His greatesr merit is rhesustained buoyancy and flexibility of his style rhroughout hisgigantic task. . Metrists will fincl stimulating new materials inhis discussion of rhythms. Few alrthors have been so fortunate asKazantzakis in having a poet, scholar, and disciple as their firsttranslator.

The bigger the work of art, the longer the tradition behind it,the harder it is to see it in a rrue perspective. euantitatively thereis no doubt that this is the largest version of the Odyssey ever

44 +)

made. And qualitatively? It will take a generation of readers andcritics to decide this. The presenr writer can only say that after along study it still seems to rank with Joyce's Ulysses as one of thegreat literary achievements of this century both as development ofthe traditional Ulysses theme and

- what matters much more

-as a work of crearive imagination. ', Encounter, July 1959, Vol. XIII,No. l.

HUGH LLOYD JONES, Professor of Greek, Oxford Universitv.In Tbe Spectator, London, March 6, 19j9. ,,This

Odyssey is iopastiche of Homer, but a modern work of the highest originalityand poetic power. This odysseus is a born aclrrent.rrer, u.*u.rti.realist, remarkable not for mere cunning bur for physical andmoral strength and courage and f.r a restless urge to win salvationby exploring ro the root his soul's relation to God and to theuniverse. The work is, above all, a religious poem, a record of thesearch for the undersranding of God and the universe; but it is asfar removed as possible from the bloodless aridity of most symbol_ical writing. Just as the writer's mysticism insists on the accept_ance of the universe, so does his p.etry describe life in the woddin all its concretcness with tremendous realism and power. Theodysseus of Kazantzakis goes beyond mosr other contemplativesin pressing forward ro the last victory over Hope, rhe willingacceptance of annihilation. ve are reminded of how the ancienipoets of his race faced, without an insranr of false self_consolation, the ultimate facts of human impotence and mortal_ity; and we see the link rhar connecrs the greatest Greek poem ofmodern times with the sublime acceprance of man's flte thatconcludes Pindar's last and greatesr ode of victory.

This great poem presented a most formidable problem to thetranslaror; but the pnrblem has been triumphantly surmounted byMr. Kimon Friar . But it is clear that Mr. Friar himself is apoet of unusual gifts. He has performed the amazing feat ofpresenting a vast epic narrative in clear, vigorous and beautifulEnglish which steers a successful (.ourse bet-*e"r, the whirlp.olsof modern vulgarism and the dead shallows of rraditional veisify-ing. Kaz.antzakis, with sure poetic instinct, cschewed the traJi_tional 'political merer' with its monoronolrs beat in favor of aseventeen-syllable iambic measure which allowed him to achieve awholly new variety of rhythm. Mr. Friar has skillfully reproducedthe effect

'f this by using an 'iambic hexameter' which stands tothe traditional English pentamerer rather as Kazantzakis' meterdoes to the traditional Greek line of fifteen syllables, and the

explanation of his metrical principles deserves careful study byeveryone interested in modern English verse technique.,,

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR, author of Mani, Roumeli, rranslarorof Tbe Cretan Runner. InTbe Sundalt toodooTimes, Feb. g, 1959."It becomes compellingly clear that if the word ,genius, iur-urrymeaning, Kazantzalis was one. The appearance of his Odjtss;/yhere is a rnajor lirerary event. The poem is a long ,"u..h i,r, 'u

privare solution t. the underlying chaos of life, to tle breakdownof systems; the search for the -u*]*u- fulfillment of man,s role inthe evolutionary chain. The spirit of the later yeats is not absent.But what remains uppermost for the reader at the end of this longjourney is the boldness and vigor and beauty of the poetry. Iitunnels, gallops, soars, floats, explodes, sinks in golden ,uin, ,._fo1ms. Suns swoop and rotate. Tendrils twirl, leaves put forth andfall, pulses beat. $(/e, .like the devious, .ity-sucLi.g, ..,ri.r.,fthoughtful and lonely king have crossed dark woods, risen fromflickering alcoves and stalked bloody-handed down the corrid'rsof palaces and held the riller u...rr, ,"-p"stuous hexametric seas.$/e must here salute Kimon Friar's translation; his fascinating butdaunting task has been majestically fulfilled. Mr. Friar tru, iutt-fully, almost miraculously, captured the force, the originality, thefire, the bite and the splendour of the original.,,

IAN scorr-KILVERT, Modern Greek schorar. Member of theB.ard of the British Instirute, Athens, translaror .f plutarch,sNine GreeA Lircs. ln Tbe Daily Tehgrapb, London, Feb. 13, 1959."Kimon Friar has achieved ur,

"*t.u.r.di., ary featir, ,"p..ra.,.irrgr.,much of the metrical vigour and the riotrius exhuberance of rhepoct's expressi.'. The t'tal effect is of a poem magnificent in itsvision of man and nature, but unwieldy in desigri Kazantzal<tscaries away the reader with the boldness of his ihought and rheopulence of his images. While many writers have na-rrowed thecharacter of Odysseus, Kazantzakis has immensely enlarged it. Asin his other books, he deliberately yokes a soaring idealism with agrotesque' often brutal sensuarity. For this odysseus there is noproblem of tcmptati<>n: his destiny is to explore the furthestbounds of human-experience, sensual, intellectual, and spiritual.Kazantzakis has often shocked those who demand ,.""q"iiflf

""Jorder in all things Greek; he,has built his epic, for it i, .r.,thirrgless, not on despair, but on the harsh, unrelolved comple*ity #modern experience. He wrote it in the conviction which mostartists of his age have shared, that a serene art, secure in its

46 4/

assumptions, is behind us, and possibly before us, but certainlvnot with rrs."

E. V. RIEU, Professor of Classics, editor of The penguin Classicseries, translator of Flomer's odltssey. In a letter to the publisher,May 1 l, 1959: "l began readin g Tbe Odltssey: A Modern Sequel withgreat qualms. I am one of those who believe that Odysseus isbetter left to Homer

- I grudge him even to Dante. But as I read

on, I began to feel that Nikos Kazantzakjs had conceived a greatpoem which could stand in its own right. vherever one opens thebook, one finds new and original poetry. How much is d.re toKimon Friar's masterly translation? Not knowing the original, Icannot answer' All I can say is that I am filled with admirationfor his great skill. "

JAMES DICKEY, former Consultant in poetry to the Library ofcongress, author of Poems 19i7-1967. rn Tbe seraanee R"oi"*,Summer, 1959. "Nikos Kazantzakis' Tbe Oeyssey: A Modern Sequelappears among all other contemporary poetry as an elementalforce of natllre than as a 'work of art,' ,r, u, u thing that can bebound between the' covers of a book. In sheer force of invention,in its primitive, unleashed, fleshly splendor and a kind of glutton_ous ravening over the world of the senses, it is trnmatched bvanything I have ever read, long and involved as ir is . . Thoughthey are frequently over-long, and there are a great many of them,the countless soliloquies, asides, dreams, urrJ dig."rri,rns do, inactuality, but little to impede the wild barbaric onrushing of thenarrative from scene to scene, from place to place, from irr.nt toevent, as Odysseus and his followers plunge through a gorgeouslysensu()Lrs world which matches the hero's own tremend'us animalvitality as well as his moments of reflection and the t.rns of his'rnany-sided mind.' The feeling of life extravag n{y, deeply, andmeaningfully lived is in every line of the poem; not ()nly are thepersonages .nf<rrgettably vivid, d()wn to the least slave servingwine in a harbor ravern, but the very objects of the poem ,".- ,Ihave an independent life of their own, torl swo.ds, shields, therobes of women, the stones on the nrad, the stars above the shipall pulsate with uniqueness, mysrery, beauty, and immediacy, sLthat the reader realizes, time after time, how very little he hushimself been willing to settle f<rr, in living: how much there y's

upon earth: how wild, inexplicable, marvelotrs, and endless crea_tion is. The real effect of Kazantzakis' immense poem is to bringforward (and with unbelievable fuilness!) the incalculable value <r?a total response to experience. The firearesr tribute I can pay the

poet is to say that his grafting of various symbols onto the acrionsof his hero soon falls into a kind of secondary or parallel inrerest,and that the prime fascination of the poem comes out of Kazant-zakis' tumultuously vital evocation of the physical world itself,apprehended in a joyously primitive splendor that dazzles, dazes,and finally overwhelms the reader with his own admiration andgfatitude.

Vhen one looks back over Kazanrzakis' Odlssey and recalls itsthousands of vivid details as well as its irresistibly forceful maiorpassafies . one sees thar one has had part in whar is likely themost remarkable sustained accomplishment in verse that themodern imagination has been privileged to record. When onenotes, too, that this huge, questing hymn to daring and fecundityhas been written, not at all in a Miltonic striving for.greatness,'but in the most intense and personal creative joy, one is but themore impressc'd, and the more indebted to both poet and trans-lator.

The final good of the new Odyssey, I suspect, will not be toglorify the Nietzschean hero, or make aesrhetically viable the ideasof Bergson, Nietzsche, or Spengler, or even 'man's dauntlessmind,' but to restore the sense of the heedless delighr in living to ajaded populace. To poets it is, and ir will be a living demonstra-tion of the profound virality that words may be made to carry by apoet who is himself profoundly vital, and of the human powerthat makes the best poetry nearly as valuable as life. It shows,also, that this power, at its most significant issues, not tentativelyand fraught with contingencies, but directly and unalterably fromthe deepest, unanalysed springs of the personality. It is this powerwhich appropriates the fcrrms of writing and uses rhem ro createand explore new rcalms of the imagination, and ultimately toestablish rhem, so that they may become the mosr enduringground of the spirit. In this connection, Odysseus is likely toprove a hero t<-r us in more ways than even his chronicler hasenvisioned, and Kazantzakis himself in all ways."

MARVIN LO$/ENTHAL, Director of Special Services, BrandeisUniversity Ubrary, in a letter to the publishers, July 20, 1959."The ghosts of other poets and thinkers lend a breath toKazantzakis'sails: Dante, who also wrecked Ulysses in the south-ern ocean; Tennyson, who sent him \West rather than South and,in a nobler touch, left him alive and forever steering onward.There are overrones

- for the theme is universal

- of Fallst's

quest, of Flaubert's Saint Anthony, of Nectaire's tale in France'sRetolt of tbe Angels, t>f H. G. Vells' G<>d-in-the-making, of a swish

48 49

from Frazier's Golden Bough, and even of the sword-swaggererJurgen. But the big wind, the gigantic billowing voyage is al-together Kazantzakis' own. His Odyssey will rank among thegreatest achievements of modern poetry.

Sometimes, indeed rather often, there is too much of a goodthing. But this is a defect apparently inseparable from the exuber-ance of genius: rhere is too much of Faust, Tbe Diaine Comedtt.and Don Quixote. No law, fortunately, requires a marr to ...dKazantzakrs all at one go. Each major episode taken separately,and read

- as I have done

- ^t a leisurely pace

- has the merits

and rewards of a rnajor narrative poem throbbing with excitementand beauty.

For the beauty we have to rely, of course, on the translation,itself something of a marvel

- Mr. Friar makes the Greek poet

sound as though he had written directly in English. The transla-tion as such vanishes

- which is the acme of the transl^tory art.

There are dozens of happy phrases and epithets, of haunting rurnsof speech, which would make the fortune of a contemporary Eng-lish poet. I should like to hear Mr. Friar sing our in his ownvoice. "

MARY RENAULT, author of novels on ancient Greece: The Iztstof tbe lYine, The King Must Die, Tbe Bull from tbe Sea, Tbe Maskof Apollo, Fire from Heanen. "One of this cenrury's major imagina-tive achievements. As one reads, all the affinities rhat suggestthemselves are gigantic: the magnificent decorarion, the com-pressed images, the splendid despair are Elizabethan, sometimesalmost Shakespearean; but the flow and surge of the whole, withits rhythm which suggest that of natural forces, wind or sea, hasechoes of Blake; and in irs apocalyptic visions of natural disasterand human catastrophe Melville would recognize a congenial ele-ment. One cannot but feel oneself in the presence of a nobleintegrity and an unflinching courage. . The translation readslike an original work, and one is not surprised to hear rhar Kazant-zakis approved of it." Letter to the publisher, Dec. 7, l9rg.

LAVRINCE DURRELL, author of prospero's Cell, Bitter Lemons,Tbe Alexandria Quarter, etc. In a letter to the publisher, l95g: .,Apoem of epic dimensions, faultlessly edited and inimitably trans-latecl. "

PANAYOTIS KANELLOPOULOS, Man of Letters, former pro-fessor at the University of Athens, former prime Minister ofGreece, in the periodical Nea Estia, Arhens, Greece, Feb. 15.

1959. "Kazantzakis' Odyssey -

so long as men of mind and spiritshall exist on earth

- will be thought of as one of the great

landmarks of our century . Even yesterday I would have saidthat it would be impossible to translare the clearly poeric andmetrical work of Nikos Kazantzakis into a foreign tongue. Buttoday I no longer have the right to say rhis. This English transla-tion of the greatest epic poem of our century is so good that I amobligated ro say rhat all true poetry may be rendered into anothertongue, provided that a translator may be found who has theintellectual power and the poetic spirit of Kirnon Friar.

Bilkent UniverstW

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