412
45.4 A Clod of Cretan Soil in His Palm
In his book The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis (2016)
8
the late poet and
comparative literature scholar Thanasis Maskaleris presented various selections
from the enormous oeuvre of Kazantzakis
9
to dramatically evince the brilliant
nature poet who was the author of Zorba the Greek, The Last Temptation of Christ,
St. Francis, The Odyssey – A Modern Sequel, and his autobiography, Report To
Greco, among more than 50 of his other works and translations. From Zorba the
Greek, Maskaleris particularly relished the following lines: “The universe for Zorba,
as for the early humans on Earth, was a splendidly rich vision; the stars touched
him, the sea-waves crashed on his temples. He lived the soil, water, the animals and
God, without the distorting interference of reason.”
10
Like his friend and admirer Albert Schweitzer, Kazantzakis’ passion for a transcendental activism encompassed animal rights at all levels. While Schweitzer—an
animal liberationist who would go to any length to save an ant—would live and
work for three decades at his hospital in Lambaréné (now Gabon), Kazantzakis, the
quintessential observer, was traveling the world, politically, spiritually, and culturally at home everywhere and nowhere—a heretic by most standards of his time.
From a monastic retreat upon Mount Athos—symptomatic of the ascetic allure of
monasteries throughout northern Greece, including Meteora—to Geneva, where he
was at one time a multicultural steward for UNESCO, to his island home, with his
wife Eleni, on Aegina, where the Nazis tried to starve them out, to his final sojourn
in China (he died in Freiburg during his return to Europe), the poet, novelist, essayist, travel writer, philosopher, playwright, journalist, and translator
11
would nine
times be nominated for the Nobel Prize. The year he died, Camus received that prize
(by one vote), but would make clear that it was for Kazantzakis.
There are precious pictures of Kazantzakis and Schweitzer enjoying a forest picnic together somewhere in Europe, long ago. Both men seem to be grinning with a
shared, heartbreaking anticipatory weariness. They know something. Neither were
nihilists, but they understood everything. An image can convey that. They believed
in the ability of our species to act with compassion, intellect, and heart. Schweitzer
was convinced that Homo sapiens had what it takes to make things right. Kazantzakis,
for his part, was not overly convinced of that. Yet, at the end of his long trek throughout the monasteries of Mount Athos during December, 1914, still a young man and
8 Will the Humas Be Saviors of the Earth? Bilingual Edition In English and Greek, Translated And
Edited by Thanasis Maskaleris, Zorba Press, Ithaca, New York, 2016.
9 See www.kazantzakispublications.org.
10 Maskaleris, ibid., p. 53.
11 A legacy brilliantly preserved by Patroclos Stavrou, and his daughter and assiduous Kazantzakis
scholar, Niki Stavrou through their devoted Kazantzakis Publications Ltd. in Athens.
45 The Poetics of Biodiversity: Kazantzakis and Crete
45.4 A Clod of Cretan Soil in His Palm
In his book The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis (2016)
8
the late poet and
comparative literature scholar Thanasis Maskaleris presented various selections
from the enormous oeuvre of Kazantzakis
9
to dramatically evince the brilliant
nature poet who was the author of Zorba the Greek, The Last Temptation of Christ,
St. Francis, The Odyssey – A Modern Sequel, and his autobiography, Report To
Greco, among more than 50 of his other works and translations. From Zorba the
Greek, Maskaleris particularly relished the following lines: “The universe for Zorba,
as for the early humans on Earth, was a splendidly rich vision; the stars touched
him, the sea-waves crashed on his temples. He lived the soil, water, the animals and
God, without the distorting interference of reason.”
10
Like his friend and admirer Albert Schweitzer, Kazantzakis’ passion for a transcendental activism encompassed animal rights at all levels. While Schweitzer—an
animal liberationist who would go to any length to save an ant—would live and
work for three decades at his hospital in Lambaréné (now Gabon), Kazantzakis, the
quintessential observer, was traveling the world, politically, spiritually, and culturally at home everywhere and nowhere—a heretic by most standards of his time.
From a monastic retreat upon Mount Athos—symptomatic of the ascetic allure of
monasteries throughout northern Greece, including Meteora—to Geneva, where he
was at one time a multicultural steward for UNESCO, to his island home, with his
wife Eleni, on Aegina, where the Nazis tried to starve them out, to his final sojourn
in China (he died in Freiburg during his return to Europe), the poet, novelist, essayist, travel writer, philosopher, playwright, journalist, and translator
11
would nine
times be nominated for the Nobel Prize. The year he died, Camus received that prize
(by one vote), but would make clear that it was for Kazantzakis.
There are precious pictures of Kazantzakis and Schweitzer enjoying a forest picnic together somewhere in Europe, long ago. Both men seem to be grinning with a
shared, heartbreaking anticipatory weariness. They know something. Neither were
nihilists, but they understood everything. An image can convey that. They believed
in the ability of our species to act with compassion, intellect, and heart. Schweitzer
was convinced that Homo sapiens had what it takes to make things right. Kazantzakis,
for his part, was not overly convinced of that. Yet, at the end of his long trek throughout the monasteries of Mount Athos during December, 1914, still a young man and
8 Will the Humas Be Saviors of the Earth? Bilingual Edition In English and Greek, Translated And
Edited by Thanasis Maskaleris, Zorba Press, Ithaca, New York, 2016.
9 See www.kazantzakispublications.org.
10 Maskaleris, ibid., p. 53.
11 A legacy brilliantly preserved by Patroclos Stavrou, and his daughter and assiduous Kazantzakis
scholar, Niki Stavrou through their devoted Kazantzakis Publications Ltd. in Athens.
45 The Poetics of Biodiversity: Kazantzakis and Crete