Demetrios Capetanakis

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Demetrios Capetanakis , also Demetrios Kapetanakis or Demetrios Capetanaces , ( Greek Δημήτριος Καπετανάκης ; * January 22, 1912 in Izmir ; † March 9, 1944 in London ) was a Greek poet, essayist and literary critic. He spent the last years of his life in the UK and was closely associated with the Bloomsbury Group .

Life

Demetrios Capetanakis was born in Izmir in 1912 as the son of a port doctor. After the death of his father in 1922, his mother and her three children fled to Athens from the Greco-Turkish War . There Capetanakis studied politics and economics at the University of Athens with Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, among others . In Heidelberg Capetanakis received his doctorate in 1934 with the dissertation "Love and Time". In Germany he was interested in the ideas of Stefan George , whom he ultimately rejected as a forerunner of National Socialism . Kapetanakis then worked for a short time in the press department of the Greek Embassy in London. Back in Greece he published several philosophical studies - including one on the "struggle of the lonely soul" and one on the "mythology of beauty", as well as translations of poems by Friedrich Hölderlin (1938).

In 1939 he came to Great Britain on a British Council scholarship to study with Dadie Rylands at the University of Cambridge . The poet Edith Sitwell supported him at this time and became a friend. In 1941 he met the poet and publisher John Lehmann , who published Capetanakis in New Writing and became a mentor and close friend. Through Lehmann, he also met the writer William Plomer , who belonged to the Bloomsbury Group . The encounters resulted in Capetanakis starting to write in English and publishing a first poem in New Writing in June 1942 . Capetanakis wrote articles and poetry for magazines such as The Listener and Time and Tide .

He lived briefly in Birmingham to help the volunteer rescue workers of the Friends Ambulance Unit prepare for humanitarian aid in Nazi-liberated Greece; he was supported during this time by Elizabeth Cadbury .

He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1942 . Capetanakis died on March 9, 1944 in London's Westminster Hospital and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery .

In 1947, three years after Capetanakis' death, John Lehmann posthumously published the poems and essays of Capetanakis under Demetrios Capetanakis. A Greek Poet In England . The book brings together 16 English-language poems, two more by Prevelakis and one by Elytis, which Capetanakis had translated. In addition, eleven essays, including one on Rimbaud , on Stefan George , Proust, Dostojewsi, on English poetry and modern Greek poetry. Lehmann wrote the introduction himself, followed by essays by Edith Sitwell ( Die Lyrik des Demetrios Capetanakis ), Panagiotis Canellopoulos ( My Friend Demetrios Capetanakis ), William Plomer ( A Memory ) and a portrait photo by Hans Wild .

The estate with Capetanakis' manuscripts and correspondence is kept by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens .

Publications

  • Rempō: myth of kai mitos gia tēn kolasē tēs poiēsēs tou . Typois KS Papadogiannē, Athens 1937
  • Dokimia: mythologia tou ōraiou - eros kai chronos . Ekdoseis Galaxia, Athens 1962
  • Mythologia tou ōraiou: dokimia kai poiēmata tou Dēmētrē Kapetanakē . Ekdoseis Charvey, Limnēs, 1988
  • John Lehmann (Ed.): Demetrios Capetanakis: A Greek Poet In England . London 1947 (published 1948 in the United States under The Shores of Darkness )
  • The Isles of Greece . Denise Harvey Publisher, Limni 1987, ISBN 0-907978-10-X .

literature

  • David Ricks : Demetrios Capetanakis A Greek Poet in England . In: Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora , No. 22 (1996), pp. 61-75

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short Biography Demetrios Capetanakis , Denise Harvey Publisher, accessed on April 7, 2020
  2. ↑ Dimitris Papanikolaou: Demetrios Capetanakis: a Greek poet (coming out) in England . In: Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies . Vol. 30, No. 2 (2006), pp. 201-223, here pp. 210f. ( Digitized ; PDF)
  3. ^ Adrian Wright: John Lehmann: A Pagan Adventure . Duckworth, 1998, ISBN 978-0715628713 , p. 127
  4. ^ Peter F. Alexander: William Plomer: A Biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, p. 243
  5. ↑ Capetanakis, Demetrios (1912-1944) . In: Shirlee Emmons, Wilbur Watkin Lewis: Researching the Song: A Lexicon . Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2006, p. 84
  6. ↑ Dimitris Papanikolaou (2006), p. 207
  7. ↑ Dimitris Papanikolaou (2006), p. 206
  8. ^ Adrian Wright (1989), p. 154
  9. ^ Adrian Wright (1989), p. 153
  10. ↑ Demetrios Capetanakis Papers. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, accessed April 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Capetanakis, Demetrios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kapetanakis, Demetrios; Capetanaces, Demetrios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek poet, essayist and literary critic
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Izmir
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1944
Place of death London