Níkos Kavvadías

Níkos Kavvadías (in Greek Νίκος Καββαδίας , January 11th 1910 - February 10th 1975), was a Greek writer .

Biographical note

Níkos Kavvadías was born on January 11th, 1910 in Nikolski Oussouriski, a village of the area of Harbin in Mandchourie, Greek parents originating in Céphalonie. His/her father, Harilaos Kavvadias, have a company of import-export there. The two other children of the family, Genia and Mikas, were also born in this small town.

In 1914, with the release of the 1e World war, the family returns in Greece and settles in Argostoli. Harilaos Kavvadias transfers its company in Russia where it is ruined. In 1917, he is imprisoned during the Revolution of October. He returns to Greece in 1921, broken and unsuited to the environment of his country of origin.

The Kavvadias family moves then with the Pirée. Small Nikos goes to the elementary school where one of his/her classmates is Yannis Tsarouchis which will become one of the Greek great painters of the 20th century. To the college, it binds with a doctor of the marine and writer, Pavlos Nirvanas. At the 18 years age, it starts to publish poems in the magazine of the Large Greek Encyclopedia under the pseudonym of Petros Valhalas.

It passes then the examinations of entry to the medical college, but at that time his/her father dies and it is constrained to work to live in a company of navigation. It continues however to collaborate in various literary reviews. In November 1928, Kavvadias embarks for the first time, like foam, aboard cargo liner Aghios Nikolas (Saint Nicolas).

In 1934, the family moves of Pirée to settle in Athens. The house becomes a meeting room for the writers, the painters and the poets. At that time, Níkos Kavvadías is described like a man simple and silent, endowed with many humor and appreciated of all. In 1939, it obtains the diploma for the occupation of radiotelegrapher. To the beginning of the 2nd world war it is sent in Albania where it is employed like radio, then returns to Athens. When the civil war bursts in Greece, it takes the sea again. From 1944 to 1974, it sails practically unceasingly. It publishes its novel “Vardia” (the Quarter) in 1954 (translated into French in 1959) and dies in Athens in 1975.

The Quarter

“Masterpiece published in 1954, the Quarter, novel of the Greek poet Nikos Kavvadias, is a modern odyssey of a total blackness. One follows there the mistakes of a boat without age, on the way towards China. Floating coffin, the cargo liner and its crew sail unceasingly worms of other ports, other petty thievings, other brothels and other whores. Between two stopovers, the Greek sailors who are on board deliver us without decency their poor wretches existences; they re-sift their adventures, their loves, their failures, with an abyssal bitterness and a melancholy. Through the voice of these men of quarter who do not save to us anything the cruelty and the obscenity of their universe, Kavvadias speaks about the human nonsense but more especially the sea, this place mythical that, of Conrad with Cendrars, no one described only him so well. ” (presentation of the book by the editor, Denoël)

Works

Poetry

1933 : Marabout ( Μαραμπού )
1947: Fog ( Πούσι )
1974: Traverso ( Τραβέρσο )

Prose

1954 : the Quarter ( Βάρδια )
1987: Li ( Λι ) - account adapted to the cinema in 1995 pennies the title " Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea".
1987: Of the guerre/À my horse ( Του πολέμου/Στ' άλογό μου )

Bonds

Kavvadias page of the Agra editions (in English)
Kavvadias page of the remue.net site

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