I belong to a small country (G. Seferis Nobel Prize in Literature 1963)

It’s a long time since Greece has been in the praetorium being derided and slandered cruelly.

A shameless gambling is going on among its “saviors” who have fabricated a crisis in order to manipulate people’s conscience and exploit its wealth.

The Greek people are being impudently insulted while its history, culture and civilization have been dealt a blow. The majority of foreign mass media speaks and writes about the “useless stuff” they should get rid of. Greece is claimed to be a burden which must be thrown off their boat, but still they miss the artful way to do so.

However, this is not exactly the case. We, allegedly, are corrupted and loafers, whereas they forget that such behavior is not at all a rare instance in their countries.

It is true that we are experiencing, once more a difficult situation, but this is definitely not the end. We have already gone through many more. The only difference is that the Greeks have started to realize how the games have been played all these years so that their wealth can be usurped and confiscated.

Thankfully the Greeks have still got the guts and the values of their race intact.

Luckily, the Greeks have still got a supportive family network always attentive to the needs of its members with unconditional, loving care, while intimate, mutually satisfying relationships have not vanished in the vortex of the estranged modern way of life. This can perfectly explain the fact we are always on the side of those who suffer.

We, Greeks, have never regretted putting up a good fight to stand up for freedom, democracy and human rights.

Against all odds, Greece has survived despite the calamities it has been involved and the defeats it has suffered.

Indeed, this country deserves and must have a better future.

You may be wondering why I’m writing all this.

Actually, I have received some phone calls from “friends” abroad who, in a kind of necrology, forecast the doom of this country, obviously influenced by our persecutors.

Greece has long been prey to their rapacious nature. They drive a hard bargain and bet on our bankruptcy, but in vain!

We, the embittered citizens of this country, won't let them make us lose face. We'll go to all lengths to save it from poverty and misery conditions which, the devils of globalization and plutocracy, have imposed on us.

Along with us are people from all over the world who have been awakened to the emergency of the times

We, Greeks, will never bargain away our freedom and rights!

I was so much enraged that I hung up the phone! Then I sent them the following text:

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1963

Giorgos Seferis

 Giorgos Seferis' speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1963

(Translation in English)

I feel at this moment that I am a living contradiction. The Swedish Academy has decided that my efforts in a language famous through the centuries but not widespread in its present form are worthy of this high distinction. It is paying homage to my language - and in return I express my gratitude in a foreign language. I hope you will accept the excuses I am making to myself.

I belong to a small country. A rocky promontory in the Mediterranean, it has nothing to distinguish it but the efforts of its people, the sea, and the light of the sun. It is a small country, but its tradition is immense and has been handed down through the centuries without interruption. The Greek language has never ceased to be spoken. It has undergone the changes that all living things experience, but there has never been a gap. This tradition is characterized by love of the human; justice is its norm. In the tightly organized classical tragedies the man who exceeds his measure is punished by the Erinyes. And this norm of justice holds even in the realm of nature.

«Helios will not overstep his measure»; says Heraclitus, «otherwise the Erinyes, the ministers of Justice, will find him out». A modern scientist might profit by pondering this aphorism of the Ionian philosopher. I am moved by the realization that the sense of justice penetrated the Greek mind to such an extent that it became a law of the physical world. One of my masters exclaimed at the beginning of the last century, «We are lost because we have been unjust» He was an unlettered man, who did not learn to write until the age of thirty-five. But in the Greece of our day the oral tradition goes back as far as the written tradition, and so does poetry. I find it significant that Sweden wishes to honour not only this poetry, but poetry in general, even when it originates in a small people. For I think that poetry is necessary to this modern world in which we are afflicted by fear and disquiet. Poetry has its roots in human breath - and what would we be if our breath were diminished? Poetry is an act of confidence - and who knows whether our unease is not due to a lack of confidence?

Last year, around this table, it was said that there is an enormous difference between the discoveries of modern science and those of literature, but little difference between modern and Greek dramas. Indeed, the behaviour of human beings does not seem to have changed. And I should add that today we need to listen to that human voice which we call poetry, that voice which is constantly in danger of being extinguished through lack of love, but is always reborn. Threatened, it has always found a refuge; denied, it has always instinctively taken root again in unexpected places. It recognizes no small nor large parts of the world; its place is in the hearts of men the world over. It has the charm of escaping from the vicious circle of custom. I owe gratitude to the Swedish Academy for being aware of these facts; for being aware that languages which are said to have restricted circulation should not become barriers which might stifle the beating of the human heart; and for being a true Areopagus, able «to judge with solemn truth life's ill-appointed lot», to quote Shelley, who, it is said, inspired Alfred Nobel, whose grandeur of heart redeems inevitable violence.

In our gradually shrinking world, everyone is in need of all the others. We must look for man wherever we can find him. When on his way to Thebes Oedipus encountered the Sphinx, his answer to its riddle was: «Man». That simple word destroyed the monster. We have many monsters to destroy. Let us think of the answer of Oedipus.

Giorgos Seferis

(Translation in French)

Sire, Madame, Altesses Royales, Mesdames, Messieurs.
En ce moment je sens que je suis une contradiction. L'Académie Suédoise a en effet décidé que mon effort dans une langue fameuse à travers bien des siècles, mais peu répandue dans sa forme actuelle, était digne de cette haute distinction. Elle a voulu rendre hommage à ma langue et voilà que je lui adresse mes remerciements dans une langue étrangère. Veuillez bien accepter les excuses que je me fais à moi-même.
J'appartiens à un petit pays. C'est un promontoire rocheux dans la Méditerranée, qui n'a pour lui que l'effort de son peuple, la mer et la lumière du soleil. C'est un petit pays, mais sa tradition est énorme. Ce qui la caractérise c'est qu'elle s'est transmise à nous sans interruption. La langue grecque n'a jamais cessé d'être parlée. Elle a subi les altérations que subit toute chose vivante. Mais elle n'est marquée d'aucune faille. Ce qui caractérise encore cette tradition, est l'amour de l'humain; la justice est sa règle. Dans l'organisation si précise de la tragédie classique, l'homme qui dépasse la mesure doit être puni par les Erinnyes. Bien plus, la même règle vaut pour les lois naturelles. « Le soleil ne peut pas dépasser la mesure » - dit Heraclite - « sinon les Erinnyes, servantes de la justice, sauront le ramener à l'ordre » - HlioV ouc uperbhsetai metra eide mh ' ErinnueV miu dichV epicouroi exeurhsousi. Je pense que qu'il n'est pas tout à fait improbable qu'un homme de science moderne trouve profit à méditer sur cet apophtegme du philosophe Ionien. Pour moi ce qui m'émeut, c'est de constater que le sentiment de la Justice avait tellement pénétré l'âme grecque qu'il était devenu une règle du monde physique. Et un de mes maîtres du début du siècle dernier s'écrie: «Nous sommes perdus, parce que nous avons été injustes.» Cet homme était un illettré; il avait appris à écrire à l'âge de trente-cinq ans. Mais dans la Grèce de nos jours la tradition orale va aussi loin dans le passé que la tradition écrite. Ainsi va la poésie. Je trouve significatif que la Suède tienne à honorer et cette poésie et la poésie en général, même si elle jaillit parmi un peuple restreint. Car je pense que la poésie est nécessaire à ce monde moderne ou nous vivons affligé, comme il est, par la peur et l'inquiétude. La poésie a ses racines dans la respiration humaine - et que serions-nous si notre souffle s'amoindrissait ? Elle est un acte de confiance - et Dieu sait si nos malaises ne sont pas dûs à notre manque de confiance.
On a observé, l'an dernier, autour de cette table, l'énorme différence qui existe entre les découvertes de la science d'aujourd'hui et la littérature; qu'entre un drame grec et un drame moderne, il n'y a pas grande différence. Oui, le comportement des hommes ne semble pas avoir changé. Et, je dois ajouter, qu'il a depuis toujours besoin d'entendre cette voix humaine que nous appelons la poésie. Cette voix, qui court à tout moment le danger de s'éteindre, faute d'amour, et qui sans cesse renaît. Menacée, elle sait toujours où trouver un refuge; reniée, elle a toujours l'instinct de reprendre racine dans des régions inattendues. Pour elle, il n'existe pas de grandes et de petites parties du monde. Son domaine est dans le cour de tous les hommes de la terre. Elle a le charme de fuir l'industrie de l'habitude. Je dois ma reconnaissance à l'Académie Suédoise d'avoir senti ces faits; d'avoir senti que les langues dites d'usage restreint ne doivent pas devenir des barrières dans lesquelles le battement du cour humain doit être étouffé; de constituer un aéropage capable:

To judge with solemn truth life's ill-appointed lot,

pour songer à Shelley l'inspirateur, dit-on, d'Alfred Nobel - cet homme qui a su racheter l'inévitable violence par la grandeur de son cour.
Dans ce monde qui va en se rétrécissant, chacun de nous a besoin de tous les autres. Nous devons chercher l'homme, partout où il se trouve.
Quand, sur le chemin de Thèbes, Oedipe rencontra le Sphinx qui lui posa son énigme sa réponse fut: l'homme. Ce simple mot détruisit le monstre. Nous avons beaucoup de monstres à détruire. Pensons à la réponse d'Oedipe.

Giorgos Seferis

(The Seferis speech exist on http://www.nobelprize.org/)