TRANSLATIONS
DIMITRIS LYACOS
“A hellish agony is woven throughout the work and will draw comparisons to Dante but […] this is original writing unique to Dimitris Lyacos.”
© Thomas Langdon (1 and 2), Katerina Fougiatzi (3)
Since 2002 I have been the exclusive translator of Dimitris Lyacos’ work.
Dimitris Lyacos is the highly acclaimed author of the Poena Damni trilogy (Z213: EXIT, With The People From The Bridge, The First Death). The trilogy, in its current form, developed as a work in progress over the course of thirty years with subsequent editions and excerpts appearing in journals around the world, as well as in dialogue with a diverse range of sister projects it inspired - drama, contemporary dance, video art,sculpture installations, photography, opera and contemporary music. So far translated into sixteen languages and performed worldwide, Poena Damni is the one of the most widely reviewed and best-selling Greek literary works of the past decades. Dimitris Lyacos is Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program, University of Iowa.
The German translation of the Trilogy Poena Damni can be ordered at Klak Verlag Berlin!
The translation was awarded the "Translation Grant of the Town of Vienna" in 2020.
Enjoy an excerpt from Lyacos' "Z213: EXIT" with the poet reading himself with German subtitles.
So far, the following books have appeared in German:
Der erste Tod. Berlin 2008.
ISBN: 9783940249272
Nyctivoe. Hamburg 2001.
ISBN: 978-3940249272
Excerpts of the forthcoming German translation have appeared in the following books / online platforms:
Grenzporträts. Gegenwartslyrik International
50 Lyriker aus 25 Ländern über das Thema "Grenze" in all seinen Facetten - Grenzen der Geopolitik, des Schicksals und der Kunst.
Klak Verlag
ISBN 978-3-943767-83-4
Zeitzug / Timetrain: Literarische Online Sammlung
Literary Ways 2: Poems by a.o. Dimitris Lyacos and Tassos Denegris. Ilion/Athens 2008.
planet lyrik: Der erste Tod
Critical Acclaim of Dimitris Lyacos:
How did a book of Greek poetry become one of the most-discussed and most-lauded pieces of contemporary European literature? Garrett Phelps, Assistant Managing Editor at Asymptote, explains what makes Dimitris Lyacos' Poena Damni trilogy is so unusual--and so difficult to describe. ASYMPTOTE
A fierce book that is as much puzzle as narrative, Z213: Exit is the first in a trilogy (known as the Poena Damni) that represents more than three decades of work. Dimitris Lyacos uses a fusion of stream-of-consciousness, verse, and prose to construct this fascinating narrative that approximates a journey made in consecutive nightmares while addressing the big issues that have defined the human experience. WORLD LITERATURE TODAY
The style of the language in the prose sections is most reminiscent of a fragmented version of McCarthy's hyper-lucid, hallucinogenic prose in Blood Meridian. That shockingly vivid imagery is there also, but there is so much more to Z213: EXIT. Never has so small a book seemed so infinite. COMPULSIVE READER