'Triptych': A conversation with Greek-Australian Nick Trakakis, poet Tasos Leivaditis' translator

Nikos Trakakis is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University. He writes and translates poetry. He talks to SBS about 'Triptych', his latest translation of poet Tasos Leivaditis' poetic work.

Tasos Leivaditis' Triptych, edited and translated in English by Nick Trakakis.

Since 2014, Greek-Australian Nick Trakakis has been studying and translating Greek poet Tasos Leivaditis' poetic works into English.

 That year he published the translation of the work 'The Blind Man with the Lamp', in 2017 the work 'Violets for a Season', and in 2020 the work 'Autumn Manuscripts'.

In 2021, he translated and released the 'Enchiridion Euthanasiæ'.

Tasos Leivaditis' Triptych, edited and translated in English by Nick Trakakis.

All the above works of Leivaditis were written in the last decade of the poet's life, who died in 1988 at the age of 66.

This year, in 2022, Trakakis translated in English the 'Triptych', which includes the poems 'Battle at the Edge of the Night', 'This Star is For All of Us', and 'The Wind at the Crossroads of the World' that Leivaditis wrote between 1952 and 1953.

Seventy years later, Trakakis who was born and based in Melbourne, translates them into English.

SBS Greek spoke with Nick Trakakis.