George Seferis – Philip Sherrard An Exchange : 1946–1971
Edited by Denise Sherrard
‘ . . . this dialectic of blood and light
which is the history of your people . . . ’
Sherrard to Seferis, 20 March 1950
Philip Sherrard first came across George Seferis's poetry when as a young man still in the army he was transferred to Greece in 1946. It made such a powerful impression on him that when he returned to England he started corresponding with Seferis, began translating his poetry into English, and ultimately decided to do his PhD on modern Greek poetry. Much later Sherrard was to translate, together with Edmund Keeley, Seferis's Collected Poems for Princeton University Press. The Seferis - Sherrard correspondence is not vast, but nevertheless revealing of both men's orientation, most particularly Sherrard's as he became increasingly interested in the Christian Orthodox East, and who simultaneously with his involvement in Greek literature and especially modern Greek poetry went on to write a number of important theological studies. Included with the correspondence are the texts that the two men sent to each other and three studies of Seferis's poetry written by Sherrard, the one published here for the first time. The book is introduced by the Emeritus Professor of Modern Greek at Oxford, Peter Mackridge, and the theologian Vincent Rossi, as well as by Sherrard himself in a text published here for the first time.
The three essays by Seferis in this volume are on his long poem 'Thrush', the Monasteries of Cappadocia, and Delphi. Those by Sherrard, in addition to his three essays on Seferis's poetry, include his essays on Greece and the Classics, El Greco, and St Symeon the New Theologian.
416 pages; 9.25 x 6.25 x 1 inches