Brettákos, Nikiforos

Born Jan. 1, 1912, in the village of Krokeai, near Sparta. Greek poet. Born into a peasant family.

Brettákos took part in the Greco-Italian War of 1940-41. He published the collection of poems In Shade and Light (1929) and Human Grimaces (1935). During the years of resistance Brettákos sang of the people’s patriotism in the narrative poems Heroic Symphony (1944) and Thirty-three Days (1945). During the Civil War of 1946-49 and the post-war period, motifs of bitterness predominated in his lyric poetry—for example, “Margarita’s Book” (1949),“Plumitsa” (1952), and Poems: 1929-1951 (1955). But his book of poems entitled The Depth of the World (1961) is permeated with optimism. One of the Two Worlds (1958) is devoted to the historic achievements of the USSR, which Brettakos visited in 1957.