Sailing and a Matter of Prestige

‘Dear Mr. Savvakis, your poetry reminds me of a phrase by Terentius: ‘nothing human could be strange to me.’ This was what a Greek critic wrote about one my collections and I think he hit the nail on the head.

Yes, indeed all human activities interest me. There are countless ways in which we react to both material and psychological realities, and one cannot help but marvel at this wonder of creation.

Just as each of us has a unique fingerprint, we also possess a unique personality. We each handle even the most common problems in our own distinctive manner.

Of course, we comprehend and interpret them differently, according to our customs, values, circumstances and a countless number of factors that determine our personality.

Nothing human could be strange to me, and in my poetry, I strive to capture as many expressions of this uniqueness as possible.

Nikos Savvakis was born in Phinikouda, a small fishing village in South-Western Peloponnese, Greece. From a very early age, he found himself in the family café and, given the Greek obsession with politics, it was natural for him to study it later as a student in England. However, when his attempt to practice it even at elementary level came to grief—he managed to get seven (out of a hundred) votes for a place at the local council—he retreated from any institutional involvement.

It was thanks to this failure inter alia that poetry, an unexpected and uninvited guest, gained the upper hand as his raison d’etre. He has been grateful to the Muse since his 27th year, when she did him the honour of embracing him.