Kleitos Kyrou

Kleitos Kyrou was born on August 13, 1921, in Thessaloniki and passed away on April 10, 2006, at the age of 85. He worked in the banking sector from 1951 to 1983 and served as the general secretary of the State Theatre of Northern Greece from 1974 to 1976. He collaborated with numerous literary magazines, and his poems have been translated into various languages. He was also involved in film criticism. In 1988, he was awarded the Second State Poetry Prize, which he declined. His books include "Search" (1949), "In First Person" (1957), "Cries of the Night" (1960), "Keys" (1963), "Apology" (1966), "Apology II" (expanded edition) (1976), "The Constructions (1949-1979)" (1980), "The Birds and the Awakening" (1987), "Period of Grace" (1992), and "The Anachronistic Speech" (1995). He also engaged in translating foreign poetry (notably works by Eliot, Pound, MacLeish, Auden, Keats, Apollinaire, Cendrars, Lorca, Neruda) and theater (Ford, Marlowe, Lorca, Shelley). He was honored with the Greek Translators Society Award for Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" (1991) and the State Translation Award for Shelley's "The Cenci" (1994), both published by Agra. In November 2001, his autobiographical book "Retrospections: A Life Review" was also published by Agra. (photo: Kostas Mitropoulos)