The Greek language now has its own World Day, which is celebrated annually every February 9, the day which also honors the memory of Greece’s national poet Dionysios Solomos, who wrote Greece’s national anthem ”Hymn to Liberty.” (Ύμνος εις την Ελευθερίαν).
The poem that follows won a distiction in the Poetry Competition held by the Club Unesco of Kefalonia and Ithaca in tribute to Dionysios Solomos in October. Hope you will enjoy it
Ode to Dionysios Solomos by Sofia Kioroglou
His intuizione musicale
totally new in the until then known art
with a language, a map of a terra incognito
of transcendental abstractions and idealistic notions
His ideal was unfettered Greece
the crisis still felt today
the Pandora’s box discovered
many a skeleton uncovers
I recognize you by the fierce edge of your sword
Liberty so sacred and so rare
in an era where ” ethnos” is emotively achromatic
and Solomos ” The Free besieged” an urgent call for an exodus.
Α few words about Dionysios Solomos
* Dionysios Solomos, the Greek National poet born in Zakynthos Greece: Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) was born on the island of Zakynthos. He is considered as the Greek national poet as town stanzas of his poem Hymn to Liberty has been declared as the national Anthem of Greece. Solomos is also credited as the first to create a modern poetic culture in Greece. Source: http://www.greeka.com
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