Nikos Kazantzakis pages :: Works :: Works in English translation

Dia M.L. Philippides, CENSUS of Modern Greek Literature: Check-list of English Language Sources Useful in the Study of Modern Greek Literature (1824-1987). New Haven: Modern Greek Studies Association [Occasional Papers, 2], 1990, pp. 121-125.

Kazantzakis, Nikos (1883-1957)

a. Translations in the form of books.
- 1. Alexander the Great
  A Novel. Theodora Vasils, tr. Virgil Burnett, illustr. Athens, Ohio and London: Ohio University Press, 1982. 222 p. (CENSUS 7.575)
- 2. Buddha
  Kimon Friar and Athena Dallas-Damis, trs.; Michael Tobias, pref.; Peter Bien, intro. San Diego, [Calif.]: Avant Books, 1983. 172 p. (CENSUS 7.576)
- 3. Christ Recrucified
  See The Greek Passion. (CENSUS 7.577)
- 4. * Christopher Columbus
  A play. Athena Gianakas-Dallas, tr. Kentfield, Calif.: Allen Press, 1972. 79 p. Limited ed.: 140 copies. (CENSUS 7.578)
- 5. England
  A Travel Journal. Amy Mims, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965. 284 p. Also Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1971. (CENSUS 7.579)
- 6. The Fratricides
  A Novel. Athena Gianakas-Dallas, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964. 254 p. Also Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1967. London: Faber and Faber, 1974. 254 p. (CENSUS 7.580)
- 7. Freedom or Death
  A Novel. Jonathan Griffin, tr.; A. den Doolaard, pref. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. 433 p. Published in England as Freedom and Death. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer; London: Faber and Faber, 1956. 472 p. Also London: Faber and Faber, 1966. 472 p. (CENSUS 7.581)
- 8. God's Pauper, St. Francis of Assisi.
  See Saint Francis. (CENSUS 7.582)
- 9. The Greek Passion
  A Novel. Jonathan Griffin, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954. 432 p. Second printing, 1959. Also New York: Ballantine Books, 1965. 511 p. Published in England as Christ Recrucified. A Novel. Jonathan Griffin, tr. *Oxford: Bruno Cassirer; London: Faber and Faber, 1954. 470 p. 2nd edition, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1960. 470 p. Also London: Faber and Faber, 1962. 470 p. Reprinted 1963, 1966. (CENSUS 7.583)
- 10. Japan, China
  A Journal of Two Voyages to the Far East: 1935 and 1957. George C. Pappageotes, tr.; Helen Kazantzakis, epilogue. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. 382 p. Published in England as Travels in China & Japan. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1964. 382 p.; London: Faber and Faber, 1964. (CENSUS 7.584)
- 11. Journey to the Morea
  F.A. Reed, tr.; Alexander Artemakis, photographs. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965. 190 p. Published in England as Travels in Greece, Journey to the Morea. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1966. (CENSUS 7.585)
- 12. Journeying: Travels in Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem and Cyprus
  Themi Vasils and Theodora Vasils, trs. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1975. 201 p. Also San Francisco: Creative Arts Books Co. (Donald S. Ellis, Publisher), 1984. (CENSUS 7.586)
- 13. The Last Temptation of Christ
  A Novel. Peter A. Bien, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. 506 p. Also New York: Bantam Books, 1961. 496 p. Published in England as The Last Temptation. With a Translator's Note on the Author and his Language (pp. 509-518). Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1961. 519 p. *Oxford: Bruno Cassirer; London: Faber and Faber, 1975. (CENSUS 7.587)
- 14. The Odyssey
  A Modern Sequel. Kimon Friar, tr. into English verse, intro., synopsis, and notes. Illustrations by Ghika. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958. 824 p. Also London: Secker and Warburg, 1958. (CENSUS 7.588)
- 15. Report to Greco
  Peter A. Bien, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965. 512 p. Also, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer; London: Faber and Faber, 1965. New York: Bantam Books, 1971. 495 p. London: Faber and Faber, 1973. (CENSUS 7.589)
- 16. The Rock Garden
  A Novel. Richard Howard, tr. from the French. Passages from The Saviors of God. Kimon Friar, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. 251 p. (CENSUS 7.590)
- 17. Saint Francis
  A Novel. Peter A. Bien, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. 379 p. Published in England as God's Pauper: Saint Francis of Assisi. A Novel. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1962. 390 p. Oxford: Cassirer; London: Faber and Faber, 1975. (CENSUS 7.591)
- 18. The Saviors of God
  Spiritual Exercises. Kimon Friar, tr. and intro. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. 143 p. (CENSUS 7.592)
- 19. Serpent and Lily
  A Novella, with a Manifesto, "The Sickness of the Age". Theodora Vasils, tr., intro. and notes. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1980. 117 p. (CENSUS 7.593)
- 20. Spain
  Amy Mims, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. 254 p. (CENSUS 7.594)
- 21. The Suffering God
  Selected Letters to Galatea and to Papastephanou. Philip Ramp and Katerina Anghelaki Rooke, trs.; Katerina Anghelaki Rooke, intro. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Caratzas Brothers, 1979. 114 p. (CENSUS 7.595)
- 22. Symposium
  Theodora Vasils and Themi Vasils, trs. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974. 97 p. Also New York: Minerva Press, 1974. 97 p. (CENSUS 7.596)
- 23. Three Plays
  Athena Gianakas-Dallas, tr. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969. 285 p. (CENSUS 7.597)
  Χριστόφορος Κολόμβος, Μέλισσα, Κούρος.
- 24. Toda Raba
  Amy Mims, tr. from the French. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964. 220 p. (CENSUS 7.598)
- 25. Travels in China & Japan
  See Japan, China. (CENSUS 7.599)
- 26. Travels in Greece, Journey to the Morea
  See Journey to the Morea. (CENSUS 7.600)
- 27. Two Plays: Sodom and Gomorrah and Comedy
  A Tragedy in One Act. Kimon Friar, tr. and intro., with an introduction to Comedy: A Tragedy in One Act by Karl Kereyi [Peter Bien, tr.] (pp. 93-97). A Nostos Book [Minneapolis, Minn.]: North Central Publishing Co., 1982. 120 p. (CENSUS 7.601)
  Reprinted from The Literaty Review 18, No. 4 (Summer 1975) and 19, No. 2 (Winter 1976) {61, 62}. The translation of the plays has been slightly revised for this edition.
- 28. Zorba the Greek
  Carl Wildman, tr.; Ian Scott-Kilvert, intro. London: John Lehmann, 1952. Also New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953. 319 p. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1959. London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1961. 311 p. New York: Ballantine Books, 1964. 346 p. (CENSUS 7.602)
  Only the first edition has the introduction.
b. Translations of shorter works appearing within other works
- 29. "The Angels of Cyprus"
  Amy Mims, tr. In Cyprus 74: Aphrodites Other Face (Emmanuel C. Casdaglis, ed. Athens: National Bank of Greece, 1976), pp. 148-150. (CENSUS 7.603)
- 30. "Burn Me to Ashes: An Excerpt"
  Kimon Friar, tr. Greek Heritage 1, No. 2 (Spring 1964), pp. 61-64. (CENSUS 7.604)
- 31. "Christ" (poetry)
  Kimon Friar, tr. JHD 10, No. 4 (Winter 1983), pp. 47-51 {60}. (CENSUS 7.605)
- 32. "Comedy: A Tragedy in One Act"
  Kimon Friar, tr. The Literary Review 18, No. 4 (Summer 1975), pp. 417-454 {61}. (CENSUS 7.606)
- 33. "Death, the Ant". From The Odyssey
  A Modern Sequel, Book XV, 829-63. Kimon Friar, tr. The Charioteer 1, No. 1 (Summer 1960), p. 39. (CENSUS 7.607)
- 34. "Drama and Contemporary Man"
  An essay. Peter Bien, tr. The Literary Review 19, No. 2 (Winter 1976), pp. 115-121 {62}. (CENSUS 7.608)
- 35. "Father Yanaros" [from his novel: The Fratricides]
  Theodore Sampson, tr. In Modern Greek Short Stories. Vol. 1 (Kyr. Delopoulos, ed. Athens: Kathimerini Publications, 1980), pp. 307-333. (CENSUS 7.609)
- 36. "He Wants to be Free-Kill Him!"
  A Story. Athena G. Dallas, tr. Greek Heritage 1, No. 1 (Winter 1963), pp. 78-82. (CENSUS 7.610)
- 37. "The Homeric G.B.S."
  The Shaw Review 18, No. 3 (Sept. 1975), pp. 91-92. (CENSUS 7.611)
  The tribute to G.B.S. was originally a broadcast in Greek, aired in 1946 on Shaws ninetieth birthday by the B.B.C. Overseas Service. This text is a translation of the broadcast.
- 38. "Hymn (Allegorical)"
  M. Byron Raizis, tr. Spirit 37, No. 3 (Fall 1970), pp. 16-17. (CENSUS 7.612)
- 39. "from Odysseus, A Drama"
  M. Byron Raizis, tr. The Literary Review 16, No. 3 (Spring 1973), p. 352. (CENSUS 7.613)
- 40. [Selections from] "The Odyssey"
  Kimon Friar, prose tr. Wake 12 (1953), pp. 58-65. (CENSUS 7.614)
- 41. "The Return of Odysseus"
  Kimon Friar, tr. The Atlantic Monthly 195, No. 6 (June 1955), pp. 110-112. (CENSUS 7.615)
- 42. "from The Saviors of God: Spriritual Exercises"
  Kimon Friar, tr. The Charioteer 1, No. 1 (Summer 1960), pp. 40-51. (CENSUS 7.616)
  Reprinted in The Charioteer 22 and 23 (1980/1981), pp. 116-129 {57}.
- 43. "Sodom and Gomorrah, a play"
  Kimon Friar, tr. The Literary Review 19, No. 2 (Winter 1976), pp. 122-256 {62}. (CENSUS 7.617)
- 44. "A Tiny Anthology of Kazantzakis Remarks on the Drama, 1910-1957"
  Compiled by Peter Bien. The Literary Review 18, No. 4 (Summer 1975), pp. 455-459 {61}. (CENSUS 7.618)
- 45. "Two Dreams"
  Peter Mackridge, tr. Omphalos 1, No. 2 (Summer 1972), p. 3. (CENSUS 7.619)
ABBREVIATIONS USED FOR JOURNALS

JHD Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora

NOTES

An asterisk placed at the beginning of an entry or at the start of a reference indicates that it has not been possible to inspect that item personally: the information is that available from bibliographical sources. Square brackets have been used not only to indicate information supplied independently of the title page of a bibliographical source, but also in order to distinguish categories, such as the titles or translators of shorter works listed as part of the contents of larger ones. Cross-references are denoted by placing entry numbers within curly brackets.

The above text is reproduced by kind permission of:
- • Dia M. L. Philippides, author of CENSUS*
  Address:Dia M. L. Philippides, Professor of Classical Studies, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02138, USA
  FAX: 001-617-552-8828
  e-mail: dia.philippides@bc.edu
- • The Editor, Modern Greek Studies Association
  Prof. S. Victor Papacosma, Modern Greek Studies Association, P O Box 945, Brunswick, ME 04011.
(c) Dia M.L. Philippides & Modern Greek Studies Association, 1990

1883. Kazantzakis is born on 18/30** February in Iraklion, Crete, then still part of the Ottoman Empire.

His father Mihalis, a dealer in agricultural products and wine, is from Varvari, now the site of the Kazantzakis Museum. Much later, Mihalis is to become one of the models for Kapetan Mihalis in the novel Freedom or Death.

with his father and sisters

Kazantzakis' father, on whom Kapetan Michalis,
protagonist of Freedom or Death was modelled

Editions of

1912. He introduces Bergson's philosophy to Greek intellectuals by means of a long lecture delivered to members of the Educational Association and later published in the association's Bulletin.

When the first Balkan War breaks out, he volunteers for the army and is assigned to Prime Minister Venizelos' private office.

1915. Again with Sikelianos, he tours Greece. In his diary he writes, "My three great teachers: Homer, Dante, Bergson. "In retreat at a monastery, he completes a book (now lost), probably on the Holy Mountain. He notes in his diary that his motto is "come l' uom s' eterna" (how man saves himself ' from Dante's "Inferno" 15.85).

He most likely writes the plays " Christ", "Odisseas" and " Nikiforos Fokas " in first draft. In order to sign a contract for harvesting wood from Mount Athos, he travels to Thessaloniki in October. There he witnesses the British and French forces as they disembark to fight on the Salonica Front in World War I.

In the same month, reading Tolstoy, he decides that religion is more important than literature and vows to begin where Tolstoy left off.".

In Athens with Galatea, his first wife

to Galatea

Yiorgis Zorbas, on whom "Zorba the Greek" was modelled

Editions of

Kazantzakis with the poet Angelos Sikelianos

Relevant excerpt from

We became abrupt, immediate friends. So greatly did we differ, we divined at once that each needed the other and that the two of us together would constitute the whole man.
We became abrupt, immediate friends. So greatly did we differ, we divined at once that each needed the other and that the two of us together would constitute the whole man. I was coarse and taciturn, with the tough hide of a peasant. Full of questions and metaphysical struggles, I remained undeceived by striking exteriors, for I divined the skull beneath the beautiful face. I was devoid of naïveté, sure of nothing. I had not been born a prince; I was struggling to become one.
He was jolly, with a stately grandiloquence, sure of himself, the possessor of noble flesh and the unsophisticated, strength-engendering faith that he was immortal.
Certain he had been born a prince, he had no need to suffer or struggle to become one.
Nor to yearn for the summit, since -of this he was certain also- he had already attained the summit.
He was convinced that he was unique and irreplaceable.
He would not condescend to compare himself with any other great artist, dead or alive, and this naïveté gave him vast self-confidence and strength

[...]

Later, when I knew him better, I said to him one day,

- "The great difference between us, Angelos, is this: you believe you have found salvation, and believing this, you are saved;
I believe that salvation does not exist, and believing this I am saved."

[...]

Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco.
Translation by Peter A. Bien,
New York : 1965, Bantam Books Inc., pp. 181-182.

1922.An advance contract with an Athenian publisher for a series of school textbooks enables him to leave Greece again. He remains in Vienna from 19 May until the end of August. There he contracts a facial eczema that the dissident Freudian therapist Wilhelm Stekel calls "the saints' disease." In the midst of Vienna's postwar decadence, he studies Buddhistic scriptures and begins a play on Buddha's life. He also studies Freud and sketches out "Askitiki".

September finds him in Berlin, where he learns about Greece's utter defeat by the Turks, the so called "Asia Minor disaster". Abandoning his previous nationalism, he aligns himself with communist revolutionaries. He is influenced in particular by Rahel Lipstein and her cell group of radical young women. Tearing up his uncompleted play "Buddha", he begins it again in a new form. He also begins Askitiki , his attempt to reconcile communist activism with Buddhist resignation. His dream being to settle in the Soviet Union, he takes Russian lessons.

1922. Rahel Lipstein-Minc

with Rahel
A handwritten

to Rahel
A handwritten

to N. Kazantzakis

A handwritten dedication to Rahel Minc

Cover of Rahel Lipstein-Minc's Psaumes, Paris' 1949

A handwritten dedication to N. Kazantzakis

1928.On January 11, Kazantzakis and Istrati address a throng in the Alhambra Theater, praising the Soviet experiment. This leads to a demostration in the streets. Kazantzakis and Dimitrios Glinos, who organized the event, are threatened with legal action, Istrati with deportation.

April finds both Istrati and Kazantzakis back in Russia , in Kiev, where Kazantzakis writes a film scenario on the Russian Revolution. In Moscow in June, Kazantzakis and Istrati meet Gorki. Kazantzakis changes the ending of "Askitiki", adding the " Silence". He writes articles for Pravda about social conditions in Greece, then undertakes another scenario, this time on the life of Lenin. Traveling with Istrati to Murmansk, he passes through Leningrad and meets Victor Serge. In July, Barbusse's periodical "Monde" publishes a profile of Kazantzakis by Istrati; this is Kazantzakis's first introduction to the European reading public.

At the end of August, Kazantzakis and Istrati joined by Eleni Samiou and Istrati's companion Bilili Baud-Bovy, undertake a long journey in southern Russia with the object of co-authoring a series of articles entitled "Following the Red Star". But the two friends become increasingly estranged. Their differences are brought to a boil in December by the "Roussakov affair," that is, the persecution of Victor Serge and his father-in-law, Roussakov, as Trotskyists. In Athens, a publisher brings out Kazantzakis' Russian travel articles in two volumes.

1931. Back in Greece, he settles again on Aegina , working on a French-Greek dictionary (demotic as well as katharevusa).

In June, in Paris, he visits the Colonial Exhibition; this gives him fresh ideas for the African scenes in the Odyssey , whose third draft he completes in his hideaway in Czechoslovakia.

1937. In Aegina, he completes the sixth draft of the Odyssey . His travel book on Spain is published. In September he tours the Peloponnesus. His impressions are published in article form; later they will become "Journey to the Morea". He writes the tragedy "Melissa " for the Royal Theate.

1943. Working energetically despite the privations of the German occupation, Kazantzakis completes the second drafts of "Buddha", "Alexis Zorbasά" and the "Iliad" translation.

Then he writes a new version of Aeschylus's "Prometheus" trilogy.

In the spring and summer he writes the plays "Capodistria " and "Constantine Palaiologos". Together with the "Prometheus" trilogy, these cover ancient, Byzantine, and modern Greece.

After the German withdrawal, Kazantzakis moves immediately to Athens, where he is offered hospitality by Tea Anemoyanni. He witnesses the phase of the civil war called the "Dekemvriana" (the December events).

Fulfilling his vow to re-enter politics, he becomes the leader of a small socialist party whose aim is to unite all the splinter groups of the noncommunist left. He is denied admission to the Academy of Athens by two votes.

The government sends him on a fact-finding mission to Crete to verify the German atrocities there. In November he marries his longtime companion Eleni Samiou and is sworn in as Minister without Portfolio in the Sofoulis coalition government.

Borje Knos, the Swedish intellectual and government official, translates "Alexis Zorbas'" Kazantzakis, after pulling many strings, is appointed to a post at UNESCO, his job being to facilitate translations of the world's classics in order to build bridges between cultures, especially between East and West

He himself translates his play "Julian the Apostate". Alexis Zorbas is published in Paris.

1953. He is hospitalized in Paris, still suffering from the eye infection (he eventually loses his right eye). Examinations reveal a lymphatic disorder that has presumably caused his facial symptoms throughout the years. Back in Antibes , he spends a month with Professor Kakridis perfecting their translation of the "Iliad" .

He writes the novel "Saint Francis" . In Greece, the Orthodox Church seeks to prosecute Kazantzakis for sacrilege owing to several pages of Kapetan Mihalis and the whole of "The Last Temptation ", even though the latter still has not been published in Greek. "Zorba the Greek "is published in New York

1954.The Pope places "The Last Temptation " on the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. Kazantzakis telegraphs the Vatican a phrase from the Christian apologist Tertullian: "Ad tuum, Domine, tribunal appello" (I lodge my appeal at your tribunal, Lord). He says the same to the Orthodox hierarchy in Athens, adding: "You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May your conscience be as clear as mine, and may you be as moral and religious as I am."

In the summer Kazantzakis begins a daily collaboration with Kimon Friar, who is translating the "Odyssey" into English. In December he attends the premiere of "Sodom and Gomorrah" in Mannheim, Germany, after which he enters hospital at Freiburg im Breisgau for treatment. His disease is diagnosed as being lymphatic leukemia.

The young publisher Yannis Goudelis undertakes to bring out Kazantzakis' collected works in Athens .

Kazantzakis and Eleni spend a month in a rest home in Lugano, Switzerland. There, Kazantzakis begins his spiritual autobiography, "Report to Greco". In August they visit Albert Schweitzer in Gunsbach.

Back in Antibes, Kazantzakis is consulted by Jules Dassin regarding the scenario for a movie of "Christ Recrucified". The Kazantzakis-Kakridis translation of the "Iliad" comes out in Greece, paid for by the translators because no publisher will accept it.

A second, revised edition of the "Odyssey" is prepared in Athens under the supervision of Emmanuel Kasdaglis, who also edits the first volume of Kazantzakis' collected plays. The " Last Temptation "finally appears in Greece, after a "royal personage" intervenes with the government on Kazantzakis' behalf.

With Albert Schweitzer and Eleni in Germany

dedicated to A. Schweitzer

1956. In June, Kazantzakis receives the Peace Prize n Vienna. He continues to collaborate with Kimon Friar. He loses the Nobel Prize at the last moment to Juan Ramon Jimenez.

Dassin completes the film of "Christ Recrucified", calling it "Celui qui doit mourir (He Who Must Die)".

The Collected Works procceed; they now include two more volumes of plays, several volumes of travel articles, "Toda-Raba" translated from French into Greek, and Saint Francis.

Another view of his study

The

as exhibted at the Historical Museum of Crete

At the Peace Prize award ceremony in Vienna

NEA (11/7/56): Ουδείς Έλλην επίσημος παρέστη...

Kazantzakis continues to work with Kimon Friar . A long interview with Pierre Sipriot is broadcast in six installments over Paris radio.

Kazantzakis attends the showing of "Celui qui doit mourir" at the Cannes film festival. The Parisian publisher Plon agrees to bring out his "Collected Works" in French translation.

Kazantzakis and Eleni depart for China as the guests of the Chinese government . Because his return flight is via Japan, he is forced to be vaccinated in Canton. Over the North Pole the vaccination swells and his arm begins to turn gangrenous. He is taken for treatment at the hospital in Freiburg im Breisgau where his leukemia was originally diagnosed. The crisis passes.

Albert Schweitzer comes to congratulate him, but then an epidemic of Asiatic flu quickly overcomes him in his weakened condition.

He dies on 26 October, aged 74 years. His body arrives in Athens. The Greek Orthodox Church refuses to allow it to lie in state. The body is transferred to Crete, where it is viewed in the cathedral church of Iraklion. A huge procession follows it to interment on the Venetian ramparts .

Later, Kazantzakis' chosen epitaph is inscribed on the tomb :

"Den elpizo tipota. Den fovumai tipota. Eimai eleftheros." (I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.)