For the first time, Tasos Leivaditis' Night Visitor translated in full in English

Regarded by Greek poet Tasos Leivaditis himself as one of his best works, 'Night Visitor' is seen by critics as a watershed moment, opening a new path in Leivaditis’ oeuvre. Now this work has been translated and published in English in Australia. The translator Dr Nick Trakakis talks to SBS Greek

Dr Nick Trakakis / Supplied / SBS Greek / Panos Apostolou

Tasos Leivaditis is one of the greats of the postwar generation of Greek writers.

Much of his work is short sayings in poetic form and his literary output is usually divided into three periods.

The last one begins in 1972 and his work takes on a bleaker, more introspective and even more religious tone.

Dr Nick Trakakis / Supplied / SBS Greek / Panos Apostolou

It was in the midst of Greece's dictatorship (1967-1974) that Leivaditis, in 1972, published his collection of prose-poems, Night Visitor, which was recently translated into English by Dr Nick Trakakis.

Regarded by Leivaditis himself as one of his best works, Night Visitor is seen by critics as a watershed moment, opening a new path in Leivaditis’ oeuvre, one that is solitary and sorrowful but also darkly luminous and transformative.

Dr Trakakis is the Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at the Faculty of Theology & Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne and he spoke to SBS Greek.

At the end of the interview, Dr. Trakakis recites three of the poems of the collection.