https://manolisaligizakis.com/2026/02/06/george-seferis/#like-9096
Category: Poetry
Hugo von Hofmannsthal reshaped how English modernism understands the failure of language. Through translation and criticism his work taught English to name silence fragmentation and interior doubt. He helped writers and scholars confront moments where speech falters meaning fractures and modern consciousness begins.
Birth of Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929) – The Writer Who Taught English Modernism to Listen for Silence
I discovered the mid-century American poet Weldon Kees (1914-1955) quite by chance, which is the best way to discover a poet. As I wrote in a 2015 essay on Henri Coulette (1927-1988), about whom I’ll have some news to share soon, “[a] photograph of Kees—neatly trimmed moustache, neatly tailored gray flannel suit, right arm bent […]
Dana Gioia resurrects Weldon Kees (but not, alas, Boris the parrot)
Through Jun Takami English learned restraint. His Shōwa era fiction entered the language by translation teaching it to render interior life without spectacle. Ethical pressure illness and silence shaped a prose of hesitation where meaning rests in understatement and moral ambiguity rather than declaration or revolt.
Birth of Jun Takami (1907–1965) – The Writer Who Entered English Through Psychological Precision
Categories
Lines from Cavafy
Je vous souhaite une très belle journée à toutes/tous 🙂 Aucune aurore boréaleNe pourra colorer mon ciel.Loin de toi je m’affaleRien n’est plus pareil. Je ne sais plus comment je visDans ces instants loin de toiChaque jour je me languisJe sens la morsure du froidCelle qui me paralyseQuand l’absence perdureCelle qui me brutaliseSans plus d’ouverture […]
Seul ton amour éclaire mon ciel – Only your love lights up my sky
Lord Byron transformed English poetry by making personality a driving force. His verse fused irony and passion, grandeur and mockery, discipline and volatility. Through works like Childe Harold and Don Juan, Byron proved English could sustain emotional risk, tonal freedom, and self-conscious performance without losing intellectual control.
Birth of Lord Byron (1788–1824) – The Poet Who Made English Dangerous Again
William Congreve refined English comedy into a discipline of precision and balance. His dialogue proved that wit could be elegant without dullness and sharp without cruelty. Through controlled syntax and intellectual play, he trained English to argue gracefully, speak economically, and reward attentive listeners with layered meaning and social intelligence.
Death of William Congreve (1670–1729) – The Writer Who Perfected English Wit
Categories
George Seferis – Collected Poems
II PsychologyThis gentlemanhas his bath every morningin the waters of the Dead Seathen he wears a bitter smilefor the business and the customers. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096TTS37J
George Seferis – Collected Poems
penwithlit 