This volume contains translations of two later collections by Odysseas Elytis (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1979). According to the official announcement from the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Elytis "for his poetry, which, against the backdrop of Greek tradition, depicts with sensual power and spiritual insight the struggle of modern man for freedom and creativity." The Elegies of Oxopetra, which he published in November 1991 at the age of eighty, were immediately hailed as one of his best works. Far from being a dialogue with death, as many critics hastily concluded, these elegies are laments for what is seen and perceived in certain "timeless moments" that, like Oxopetra, project towards the beyond, into another reality, revealing truths that, to the poet's deep disappointment, remain "unverifiable" and "inexpressible." The poems here function as a "modern form of magic," a key that opens the gates to this other reality, at least for those who speak the language of Elytis: the language of the Mystic Sun. In West of Sorrow, published in November 1995, just months before his death, it becomes even clearer that his poetry remains, as always, an ode to life, love, and beauty.