AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 9153228566715104057.png
This image has been sourced from online.
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Author's first selection of his poetry in English (parallel text in Greek) and winner of the 1983 NBC Award.

Exhibitions

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1983 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The Observatoryi"I leap to my feet", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry (p. 9,11)
Text and Commentaryi"Distant the voices of men", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry (p. 25)
Beauty and the Forgotten Onei"Your voice surprised me.", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry (p. 31)
Thanksgivingi"Proud with the swell of moon-flood tides", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry (p. 88,89)
Anafora Ereunetoui"To spiti eivai arhovtiko kai toso megalo", Dimitris Tsaloumas , single work poetry (p. 193-199)
* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1984 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
"Grafeiz pos skeftesai na steileis to gio sou" The Approvali"Your letter says that you've a mind to send", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry (p. 162,163)
* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1991 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Observations of a Hypochondriaci"1 My enemies have triumphed again today", Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) Dimitris Tsaloumas (translator) single work poetry
Resurrection 1967, Dimitris Tsaloumas , Philip Grundy (translator) single work poetry
A Rhapsody of Old Men, Dimitris Tsaloumas , Dimitris Tsaloumas (translator) Margaret Carroll (translator) Philip Grundy (translator) sequence poetry

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Language: English , Greek
Notes:
Although largely translated by Grundy, '[s]ome translations are the work of the poet himself, and others are by Margaret Carroll ... the poems in question are identified by the subscription of their initials'. (p.xi)
Notes:
Greek and English texts published on facing pages.

Works about this Work

In Transit : Migration and Memory in the Writings of Martin Johnston and Dimitris Tsaloumas Julian Tompkin , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'In August 1964 Martin Johnston boarded the Ellinis in the port of Piraeus, destined for Sydney, Australia, bringing to an end his 14-year estrangement from the land of his birth. Johnston, who had lived abroad most of his life in England and Greece, would return as a literal migrant to his own country. It was a theme that would prove fecund and deeply allegorical for the then 17-year-old son of authors George Johnston and Charmian Clift, later manifesting in his poetic works such as In Transit: a sprawling 14-part paean to Johnston’s immutable sense of displacement.

'A little over a decade before, in 1952, Greek poet Dimitris Tsaloumas would complete the same metamorphic journey, fleeing his Dodecanese homeland and arriving in Melbourne, Australia where he would take up the uneasy mantle of Australia’s Hellenic poet in exile. Despite parabolic overtures of assimilation, paradoxical themes of longing and dislocation pockmark Tsaloumas’s vast canon, tethering an uneasy union between his two divergent worlds both ancient and contemporary; familiar and profoundly alien.

'This essay explores the lives and comparative themes of exile in the works of both Johnston and Tsaloumas—writers who both identified as Xenos, a Greek word that translates as both ‘guest’ and ‘stranger’—and investigates the often incorporeal, irredeemable and contradictory natures of nostalgia and belonging.' (Publication abstract)

A Lens on Leros : The Poet as Iconographer Jena Woodhouse , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'The focus of this essay is on the presence and significance of Leros in the poetry of Dimitris Tsaloumas. Of particular interest is the quality and agency of light; and the inclusion of Greek Orthodox references and imagery in many of his poems. These corporeal and incorporeal aspects of that island are those which Tsaloumas internalised as integral elements of his identity long before he embarked on what was to be a protracted period of voluntary exile. During his years in Australia, which contributed new input to enrich and expand his personal and poetic consciousness, Tsaloumas never lost sight of his original reference points: the natural and cultural context of Leros, and the spiritual precepts with which he was imbued by the Greek Orthodox Church.' (Publication abstract)

A Diasporic Journey: Greek-Australian Poetry in Bilingual and English Publications Helen Nickas , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 41 2013;
This article 'is an attempt to give an expository overview of some of the major Greek-Australian poets of the first generation who arrived in Australia in the fifties and the early sixties. They are: Dimitris Tsaloumas (from the island of Leros, arrived in 1952 and settled in Melbourne); Vasso Kalamaras (from Athens, arrived in 1951 and settled in outback Western Australia before moving to Perth in 1960); Yota Krili (from the Peloponnese, arrived in 1959 and settled in Sydney); Dina Amanatides (also from the Peloponnese, arrived in 1958 and settled in Melbourne); and finally, Antigone Kefala (a Greek from Romania who went first to New Zealand in 1951 and finally settled in Sydney in 1960).'
An Experiment with Poetry in Two Languages Philip Grundy , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 63 no. 1 2003; (p. 32-37)
The Poetry of Dimitris Tsaloumas Matt Simpson , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Dimitris Tsaloumas : A Voluntary Exile : Selected Writings on His Life and Work 1999; (p. 223-230)
Sensual and Cerebral Pleasure Dorothy Porter , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: Voices , Autumn vol. 2 no. 1 1992; (p. 101-104)

— Review of The Oxford Book of Australian Light Verse 1991 anthology poetry ; The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas Dimitris Tsaloumas , 1983 selected work poetry
A Greek Poet in Australia Bruce Beaver , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 27 no. 12 1983; (p. 94-95)

— Review of The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas Dimitris Tsaloumas , 1983 selected work poetry
Deciphering the Greek Experience Kerryn Goldsworthy , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 October 1983; (p. 15)

— Review of The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas Dimitris Tsaloumas , 1983 selected work poetry
Embrace all these Experiences Philip Martin , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 55 1983; (p. 12-13)

— Review of The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas Dimitris Tsaloumas , 1983 selected work poetry
Greek Songs R. F. Brissenden , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Age Monthly Review , July 1983; (p. 14-15) Dimitris Tsaloumas : A Voluntary Exile : Selected Writings on His Life and Work 1999; (p. 151-161)

— Review of The Observatory : Selected Poems of Dimitris Tsaloumas Dimitris Tsaloumas , 1983 selected work poetry
An Experiment with Poetry in Two Languages Philip Grundy , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 63 no. 1 2003; (p. 32-37)
A Diasporic Journey: Greek-Australian Poetry in Bilingual and English Publications Helen Nickas , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 41 2013;
This article 'is an attempt to give an expository overview of some of the major Greek-Australian poets of the first generation who arrived in Australia in the fifties and the early sixties. They are: Dimitris Tsaloumas (from the island of Leros, arrived in 1952 and settled in Melbourne); Vasso Kalamaras (from Athens, arrived in 1951 and settled in outback Western Australia before moving to Perth in 1960); Yota Krili (from the Peloponnese, arrived in 1959 and settled in Sydney); Dina Amanatides (also from the Peloponnese, arrived in 1958 and settled in Melbourne); and finally, Antigone Kefala (a Greek from Romania who went first to New Zealand in 1951 and finally settled in Sydney in 1960).'
Sturdy Roots Bring Late Crop of Literary Blooms Deborah Tarrant (interviewer), 1983 single work biography interview criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 15-16 October 1983; (p. 16)
Tsaloumas the Ironist Philip Grundy , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Dimitris Tsaloumas : A Voluntary Exile : Selected Writings on His Life and Work 1999; (p. 168-179)
Island and Exile in The House with the Eucalypts Konstandina Dounis , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Dimitris Tsaloumas : A Voluntary Exile : Selected Writings on His Life and Work 1999; (p. 197-205)
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 15:56:38
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X