It was owing to Kostes Palamas and in particular to his collections of poems. The Twelve Words of the Gipsy and The King’s Flute, both translated into several foreign languages, that the cultural life of Greece began to attract the serious attention of world opinion in the opening years of the twentieth century.

Oscar Wilde was the first to warm to Palamas work; from then on world opinion recognised in Palamas not only the greatest poet of modern Greece but one of the foremost poets of Europe.

A host of great names was connected with translations of poems by Palamas and with his writings in general. Henri Bidou wrote that The twelve Words of the Gipsy possessed strength, colour, and passion to an incredible degree. Leon Daudet prefered the poem to Victor= Hygo’s La Legende des Siecles Marcel Briand concluded that The Twelve Words of the Gipsy was the most robust and most examplary expression of poetic genius.
Unamuno was inspired by the Gipsy and wished to devote an analytical study to him. Stefan Zweig compared him to Whitman and Verhaeren. The literary critic of Le Temps, Andre Therive, the successor of Paul Souday, dedicated a whole series of critical articles to the translation of The King’s Flute and wrote that if all Palamas works were of the same calibre we would have to honour his name as one of the greatest in our century. The outstanding Byzantinologist Diehl wrote an enthusiastic preface to Clement’s translation of The King’s Flute. The great Indian poet Tagore saluted Palamas as his equal. Romain Holland held him to be the greatest poet in contemporary Europe, while Henri de Regnier expressed unreserved admiration for him. Shortly before the renowned poet Noailles died she said she saw him as the continuation of the Greek miracle. Edouard Herriot compared him to Mistral. Miomantre placed him in the company of the poets of ancient Greece, while Andre Maurois admired the beauty of his philosophy and the charm of his landscapes. Many other outstanding literary figures, critics, and writers in Europe – French, German, Dutch, Swiss, Italian – expressed themselves in the same vein.

(από το οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου)