Tasos Livaditis the poet of Love and Revolution (vid)

On this day the poet of love and revolution was born. Tasos Livaditis is one of the greatest poets of the first post-war generation. His poetry is dominated by his heartbreaking existential anguish, which manifests itself initially as an expression of tenderness and compassion in the context of optimistic socialist realism, and in the second phase of his work as an internal folding and search for the meaning of life in the past after the disappointment of expectations and the betrayal of the artist as a fighter for a better world. The poet's lyrics have been set to music by Mikis Theodorakis («Rain in the slum», «Savvatovrado», «Drapetsona» etc.), Manos Loizos, Stelios Vamvakaris, Mimis Plessas, Grigoris Bitikotsis, George Tsagaris and other Greek composers.

The first years

Tasos (Panteleimon - Anastasios) Leivaditis was born in Athens on 20 April 1922 and spent his childhood in Metaxourgeio. He was the son of Lysander Livaditis, a merchant from Kontovazaina in Arcadia, and the Athenian Vasiliki Kontopoulou. His brother was the comic actor Alekos Livaditis (1914-1980), who excelled in the revue, and his nephew was the actor Thanos Livaditis (1934-2005), also known for his television appearances.

After graduating from high school in 1940, he enrolled at the Law School of the University of Athens. His studies were interrupted by the German occupation and his subsequent joining the Resistance and enlisting in the EPON. In 1946 he married Maria Stoupa, his childhood friend and valuable companion throughout his life, with whom he had a daughter, Vaso.

The first appearance in literature

In the same year he made his first literary appearance with the poem «The Song of Hadjidimitris», published in the magazine «Elefthera Grahmata». From 1948 to 1952 he was exiled for his political beliefs to Lemnos, Ai Stratis and Makronissos, along with other leftist artists and intellectuals such as Yannis Ritsos, Aris Alexandrou and Manos Katrakis.

In 1952 his poetry collections «Battle at the edge of the night» and «This star is for all of us» were published. The following year, his poetry collection «Blowing at the Crossroads of the World» was awarded the first prize for poetry at the World Youth Festival in Warsaw. This book was considered subversive and the poet was put on trial on 10 February 1955 at the Athens Court of Appeal, which acquitted him solemnly.

«The women with the horse's eyes’

This was followed by the poetry collections «The Man with the Drum» (1956) and «Symphony No. 1» (1957), which won the first prize of the Municipality of Athens. A milestone in his poetic journey and a landmark in his course towards the second phase of his creative work, which is characterised by internal folding and existential search, was, according to literary theorists, his collection «The Women with Horse Eyes’ (1958).

In 1961 he took part in concerts of Mikis Theodorakis all over the country, reciting his poems and conversing with the audience. In Veroia, he was attacked by paramilitaries. In the same year, he collaborated on the script with Kostas Kotzias and wrote the lyrics of the songs (to music by Theodorakis) for Alekos Alexandrakis« film »Sykonia to Oniro", which was a milestone in the history of neorealist Greek cinema and faced major problems with censorship.

Tasos Livaditis collaborated with magazines such as the «Art Review» (1962-1966) and «Nea Estia», while he held the column of criticism in the newspaper «Avgi» (1954-1967 and 1974-1980). During the seven-year dictatorship (1967-1974), he was unemployed and, in order to make a living, he translated and adapted literary works for magazines of various kinds, such as Fantazio.

The awards

With the return of democracy in Greece, he was awarded the 2nd State Poetry Prize in 1976 for his collection ’Violin for one-handed people« and the 1st State Poetry Prize in 1979 for his »Euthanasia Manual’. He was one of the founding members of the Society of Writers.

Tasos Livaditis breathed his last breath at the General State Hospital of Athens from an abdominal aortic aneurysm on 30 October 1988, after two unsuccessful operations. After his death, his poetry collection «Autumn Manuscripts» was published.