Beyond the Moment: Selected Poems 1960–1976, and: Seawave & Snowfall: Selected Poems 1960–1982, and: Οι Πρόκες: Ποιήματα 1959–1968, and: Τα Επίθετα: Ποιήματα 1968–1983 (review)

216 Reviews disputes and make recourse to the use of force increasingly difficult. ' ' Other aspects of concordization include "increased interaction in such areas as trade and communications ... a steady encouragement of multilateralism in addition to bilateral cooperation . . . and attempts by the states of the region to limit external economic, political , military and psychological influences that would divide the region " (27). This , Braun admits, amounts to little more than a prescription for more harmonious relations in the region, and it leaves a scholar with little to do but chart the extent to which the six Balkan states are fulfilling these objectives. There is disappointingly little to chart, but the author dutifully and evenhandedly records what he can. His outline of chapters implies a judgment on the progress toward concordization , since he has adopted a "double-entry" design—Warsaw Pact/Comecon cooperation on the left and (in a separate set of chapters ) NATO/EEC cooperation on the right. The anomalous state, Albania, receives little treatment and in fact is mentioned only in short references on approximately thirty scattered pages. There are in addition two short essays, (one east, one west) one on "The Bulgarian Stumbling Block," the other on "The Greek/Turkish Dispute ". These receive the same overview treatment that is typical of the rest of the book. Since he can't be systematic with this material, Dr. Braun has settled for being comprehensive. As a result he is seldom incisive or surprising. There is a great deal of information here, and it is presented in an orderly fashion, but there is little revealing analysis. Dr. Braun's final assessment of progress toward "concordization ": "A great deal more could have been done but what has been achieved is not insignificant. Thus we would argue that the process of concordization is perceptible but we would also admit that it may be barely so" (273, the text's concluding lines). It is an honest assessment by a scholar who set himself an unrewarding task. Stephen Wrage Washington, D. C. George Thaniel. Beyond the Moment: Selected Poems 1960-1976, tr. Edward Phinney. New York: Vantage Press, 1983. Seawave & Snowfall: Selected Poems 1960-1982, tr. Edward Phinney. Toronto : Amaranth Editions, 1984. Οι Πϕόκες: Ποιήματα 1959- Reviews 217 1968. Athens: Nefeli, 1981. Τα Επίθετα: Ποιήματα 1968-1983. Athens: Prósperos, 1984. If, for several reasons, Odysseus is the most faithful embodiment of the Greek race and mind through the ages, George Thaniel is certainly one of his most faithful descendants in our time. Among the best poets of the living Greek diaspora, he has been a learned and conscious heir of his cultural origins, and a traveler whose sensitive and perceptive eye has roamed much through time and space. Poetry has been the record of his experience. Time for him has ranged from the mythical, the ancient and the Byzantine, to merge in revealing associations and contrasts with the present. As for space, much of it has had its origin and setting in the Greek world as image, land- and seascape, work of art, ancient monument, chapel, icon, ritual, text, as well as everyday contemporary life, while further expanding to encompass other lands and places that the poet's self has wandered through with a camera as a third eye hanging from his neck like the heavy and at times uncomfortable albatross of a witness. In the process, he has been a witty and often brilliant detector and discoverer and an original and bold poetic exploiter of his discoveries in terms of unexpected connections, associations and metaphors expressed in a skillful variety of language and its forgotten etymology , the new-cut image, the explosive contrast. It is this individual, unorthodox approach to his heritage that has given him much of his originality. He certainly hasn't been another romantic worshipper of the glorious and legendary past, as several modern Greek poets have been. He inescapably yet gently stumbles upon the lasting omnipresence ofthat past; deep down he may not have escaped being emotionally affected by it. This explains why he hurries to disentangle himself from it as from a trap. The past and the dead are respected for what they are; they are dead and not to be disturbed in their graves. With...