A group of 72 Greek and French intellectuals, academics, poets, authors, translators have issued a letter arguing that the works of Tasos Livaditis must be made available internationally, in response to the dispute over the intellectual property rights.
The dispute stems from the refusal of poet’s grandson and copyright-holder, Stelios Halas, to allow translator Michel Volkovitch to publish 150 translations in France. Mr. Volkovitch claims to have contacted Mr. Halas about the project after securing a grant from the French Book Center and after some changes to the contract, negotiations suddenly broke down.
In response To Vima contacted Mr. Halas and was referred to his lawyer Yannis Vagias, who argued that the French translator wanted assurances that the poems had not previously been translated in French, as well exclusive rights of the translations for five years. The lawyer added that these were unacceptable terms as the poems have occasionally been translated in French and the exclusive rights hinders the ability to popularize the poet’s works.
Michel Volkovitch is a renown translator and has been translating Greek literature since 1981. He has translated works by a great number of poets, such as Kavafis, Seferis, Elytis and Ritsos, novelists such as Kosmas Politis, Dimitris Hatzis and Meni Koumantarea and playwrights, such as Dimitris Kehaidis. In 2000 he published an anthology of contemporary Greek poetry with Jacques Lacarrière.
Tasos Livaditis was born in Athens in 1922 and after studies in Law, he found his calling in literature and poetry specifically. He became politically active and exiled from 1947 to 1951 for his leftist beliefs. He published his first collection in 1952 and during the dictatorship he translated and adapted literary works for popular magazines. Many of his poems have been set to music by Mikis Theodorakis and he has been honored with with State Award for Poetry in 1979. He passed away in 1988.
