The translations contained in the present volume were undertaken since
the beginning of the great war when communication with Greece and
access to my sources of information were always difficult and at times
impossible. In hastening to present them to the English speaking
public before discussing them with the poet himself and my friends in
Athens, I am only yielding to the urgent requests of friends on both
sides of the Atlantic who have regarded my delay with justifiable
impatience. I am thoroughly conscious of the shortcomings that were
bound to result from the above difficulties and from the interruption
caused by my two years' service in the American army; and were it not
for the encouragement and loyal assistance of those interested in my
work it would have been impossible for me to bring it at all before
the public. My earnest effort has been to be as faithful to the poet
as possible, and for this reason I have not attempted to render rime,
a dangerous obstacle to a natural expression of the poet's thought and
diction. But I hope that the critics will judge my work as that of a
mere pioneer. I know there is value in the theme; and if this value is
made sufficiently evident to arouse the interest of poetry lovers in
the achievements of contemporary Greece I shall have reaped my best
reward.
I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Christos N. Lambrakis of Athens
for the information which he has always been willing to furnish me
regarding various dark points in the work translated; to Mrs. Eveleth
Winslow of Washington for many valuable suggestions and criticisms;
and above all to Professor Clifford H. Moore of Harvard University
for the interest he has shown in the work and the readiness with which
he has found time in the midst of his duties to take charge of my
manuscript in my absence and to assist in seeing it through the press.