Introduction

Abstract

Carte Blanche contains texts written during the two decades preceding its publication. As in Odysseus Elytis’s poetry, the essays in Carte Blanche reveal original elements of style and structure, of thought and expression. The chief value of the Open Book is that it illuminates Elytis’ poetic work by putting it in its historical and cultural setting. It should be noted that his prose writings have always co-existed with his poetry, as, although his Open Book was published in 1974, it contains critical essays written as early as 1935, the year his first poems were published. Again, it is worth noting that his work on collages goes back, like his prose writings, to the start of his poetic career. A particularly difficult translation problem concerned the translation of verses used by Elytis as examples of poetry so embedded in the language of its expression that it has little or no poetic value in translation.