LYKAIA GAMES STADIUM (of the Olympism the torch)

Stranger, in this place where you entered

thousands of Lykeonikes* welcome you

to tell you a mouth all together

that the beautiful does not die. He always lives.

Put your ear on the stone and the soil

listen to precious secrets and more

ancient legends that carries centuries

the uncle river Alfios that endlessly flows

Here in this land of Pan and Jupiter

years before going to Olympia

the torch lit and flashed Olympism

its light scattered around Greece

Throughout the world in the vast universe

the only truth in the centuries to mean

that in life the good is the greatest

is freedom with peace. Nothing else.

* Lykaionikes = winners of LYKAIA games

Hymn to “LYKAIA”

High on Lycaeus the peaks

the Olympian light shines again

sounds festive bells

re-echo mountains and landscapes..

And as the athletes rush

in the arena of games

thousands of voices arrive

from the depths of the ages.

To live the Lykaio, to live!

In the leap and in the lane

on the road, on the disc track

the laurel (daphne) of all who gets it.

So at Lykaio mount the top

no matter how long it takes

glory always with honor

the winners will crown.

It was me – that I was nostalgic –

your destiny levens I had

beside you, I too would

for ‘to clone olive only.

Ilias Simopoulos

1913 – 2015

 A prolific and multifaceted poet, with an extraordinary continuation of presence in Greek letters.

Ilias Simopoulos was born in the village Kastanohori (formerly Krampovos) of Arcadia on November 23, 1913. He studied law at the University of Athens and practiced for a long time the profession of lawyer. At the same time, from his youth, he performed poetry. A student in high school had begun writing poems and texts published in “Children’s Work”, “Playground” and other forms.

Between 1934 and 1936 he was Secretary of the Artistic Committee of the “Confederation of Greek Workers” (with members including Kostas Varnalis, Yannis Ritsos and Menelaos Lountemis) and director at her Labor Theater.

In the summer of 1936, with the declaration of Metaxa’s dictatorship, censorship stopped publishing his first poetic collection entitled “Enagonia”, which was at the printing press. Later, for his entire activity, he was arrested by special security, tortured and expelled from the officers’ school. More ahead, after repeated attacks on his home, he seized all his manuscripts and destroyed his entire record. He took part in the Albanian war and the National Resistance.

In 1946 he published the first poetry collection “Greeting in the First Sun” and with his work “Arcadian Rhapsody” (1958), he was established as one of the most important spiritual people in the country. There followed a multitude of poetry collections: “The Sixth Command” (1959), “The House with the Gallows” (1961), “The Big River” (1964), “Testimonials” (1968), “The Roots of Jericho” (1970), “The Book of the Earth” (1971), “Little Testimonies” (1972), “Enagonia” (1974), “Accesses” (1976), “Semaphore” (1980), ” Vespertine apology” (1983), “The wounds and the windows “(1986),” Long Journey “(1990),” Stones “(1992),” Rhythmic Hours “(2010). In 1989 and 1990, Govostis published his “Apanta” in two volumes. His poems have been translated into English, French, German, Chinese, Italian, Russian and in several other languages.

He also dealt with literary studies and critical literature and theater and became a member of critical committees, such as the State Poetry Prize Crisis Committee. He was president of the Greek Writers’ Society, which in 2011 proposed him for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

His poems have been composed by the composers Yannis Spanos (“The Lament of the Mother”), Joseph Benakis (“Arcadia Rhapsody”, “The Killer”, “The Hymn of Peace”), Ilias Stasinos (“Hymn to LYKAIA”) and Phaidon Priftis (“The Killer”).

Ilias Simopoulos died on August 30, 2015, at the age of 101.