from With Light and Death: 9, 15-17, 19-21

Odysseas Elytis (1911–1996) was born in Crete. He studied law at the University of Athens and in 1960 won the National Prize in poetry. The receiver of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature, his Collected Poems was published in 2004 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Olga Broumas is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Beginning With O (Yale University, 1977) and Sappho’s Gymnasium (Copper Canyon, 2000). She is currently the Poet-in-Residence as well as the Director of Creative Writing at Brandeis University. (updated 6/2010)