Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Panel discussion

Panel 2: Translation and the Magnitude of Historical Figures: Michalis Ganas and Translation

Co-hosted with Aiora Press in Athens

Chair: David Ricks
Panel: John Stathatos, Vassilis Letsios, Joshua Barley

Chair: David Ricks

Unusually among modern Greek poets Michalis Ganas (1944-2024) was not a translator. Yet his poems have had a second life in many languages, English among them, and he also produced adaptations of the Iliad and the Odyssey for young readers. This panel brings together three writers with a deep knowledge of Ganas’ work and of the practice of literary translation to commemorate this major poet.

John Stathatos: ‘Translating Michalis Ganas’

It was in 1976 that I started reading and translating the then new young Greek poets, having been pointed in their direction by, amongst others, Takis Sinopoulos. That winter I published in a couple of small British magazines translations of poems by Yannis Kontos and others. Almost the last of the Generation of 1970 whose work I translated was Michalis Ganas, whom I met in the  Dodoni bookshop where he was working; it must have been well before spring 1981, as that is the date of the earliest letter I have from him. My translations of four of his poems in Labrys no. 9 in November 1983 were among the first to appear in English versions. Later that year he sent me the typescript of his unpublished poem sequence Glass Yannena, which I also translated. I remember him with deep affection for the kindness and forthrightness of his character, and for the brilliant simplicity and empathy of his poetry.

John Stathatos is a writer, translator, and photographer. Born in Athens in 1947, he was based in London between 1969 and 2002, taking a degree in philosophy and political science at the LSE. Subsequently he became a freelance foreign correspondent, translator and independent publisher, bringing many new Greek poets to the attention of an English-speaking audience, including Nasos Vayenas, Yannis Kontos, Michalis Ganas and, from an earlier generation, Takis Sinopoulos and Miltos Sachtouris. He later became increasingly involved with photography both as practitioner and as critic and curator. Since 2002 he has been based on Kythera. Recent publications include Image & Icon: The New Greek Photography (1997); A Vindication of Tlön: Photography & the Fantastic (2001); Fotofraktis: The Photographs of Andreas Embirikos (2004); The Book of Lost Cities (2006); and airs, waters, places (2009). See www.stathatos.net for a selection of his photography and writing in English and Greek.

Vassilis Letsios: ‘Michalis Ganas and Homer: Rewriting the Odyssey (2016) and the Iliad (2019)’

In his late work, Ganas blends prose and verse to reimagine Homer’s epics, drawing on folk song, fellow poets, and celebrated translators. His Odyssey and Iliad confront war’s trauma, exile, homeland, and gender, while showcasing the distinctive voice of his mature poetics.

Vassilis Letsios is Associate Professor of Modern Greek Literature and Literary Translation into Greek at the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, at the Ionian University. He holds an MA in Modern Greek Studies (1997) and a PhD in Modern Greek Literature (2003) from King’s College London. He is the director of the Laboratory ‘Language, History, and Culture in the Ionian Region’.

Joshua Barley: ‘Translating Ganas in Exile’

Joshua Barley is working on a translation of Ganas’ short memoir Stepmotherland (Μητριά Πατρίδα, 1981), which relates the poet’s family’s experience of exile following the Greek Civil War. He will discuss some of the challenges involved in translating this dense and harrowing text.

Joshua Barley (https://www.joshuabarley.com/) is a translator from Modern Greek. His widely acclaimed publications include the bilingual editions Greek Folk Songs (Aiora Press 2022) and (with David Connolly) A Greek Ballad: Selected Poems of Michalis Ganas (Yale UP 2019). His tribute to Michalis Ganas recently appeared in Argo (spring-summer 2025).

Online panel discussion

17:00 UK / 19:00 Greece (1.15’)

To attend online via Zoom webinar, register here