Nikos Kavvadias
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Nikos Kavvadias (Greek: Νίκος Καββαδίας) (1910 – February 10, 1975) was a Greek poet and writer; currently one of the most popular poets in Greece. He was born in the small town of Nikolski Ousouriski, near Harbin, in Manchuria,China. His parents were Greeks from the island of Cefalonia and as a young child he had the opportunity to travel extensively. His family returned for a few years to their home island and finally moved to Pireus, Athens' port, in 1921.
He wrote his first poems while in grammar school. After graduating from high school in Pireus he took the entrance exams to become a doctor in 1928. His father fell sick that same year and young Kavvadias was forced to get a job as a clerk in a shipping office to help his family. He lasted only a few months there and after his father's death, he went on board the freighter ship "Agios Nikolaos" as a sailor. He worked for a few years on freighter boats, coming back home always wretched and penniless. He decided to get the captain diploma, but the years had passed. He settled for a radio operator diploma. He got his diploma in 1939, but by that time WWII had started and he was sent to fight in Albania. During the German occupation of Greece, he was stranded in Athens.
When the war was over in 1944, he embarked and traveled continuously as a radio operator all over the world until November 1974, having the opportunity to get to know the sea and its exotic ports. Through his experiences in the sea he collected material for his poetry. Returning from his last trip and as he was preparing the publication of his third collection of poems, he died suddenly from a stroke on February 10, 1975.
His work is filled with references to life in the sea. In 1933, his first collection of poems, "Marabou", was published which established him as the poet of the sea. The central themes of his poems were the sailor, nostalgia, life, death and women. In 1947 he published his second collection, "Pousi", where his maturity as a poet was noted. In 1954 he published his only novel, "Vardia". His third collection, "Traverso", came out shortly after his death in 1975. His short stories "Li", "Tou Polemou" (Of the war) and "Sto Alogo mou" (On my horse) were published in 1987. "Li" was also made into a movie in 1995 under the name "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea".
His poetry is immensely popular in Greece, partly because some of his poems have been set to music by Thanos Mikroutsikos in his very popular albums Grammes Orizonton (Horizons' Lines) and Stavros tous Notou (Southern Cross).
