Dinos Christianopoulos | |
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Born | Konstantinos Dimitriadis March 20, 1931 Thessaloniki, Greece |
Died | August 11, 2020 Thessaloniki, Greece | (aged 89)
Alma mater | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki |
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Konstantinos Dimitriadis ( Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Δημητριάδης; 20 March 1931 – 11 August 2020), better known by his pen name Dinos Christianopoulos (Ντίνος Χριστιανόπουλος), was a Greek contemporary and post-war poet, novelist, folklorist, and scholar. [1] He was also a music scholar who wrote about rebetiko. [2]
As Christianopoulos, he is widely known for writing the couplet: "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds." [3]
Dimitriadis was born in Thessaloniki on 20 March 1931, the son of a refugee from East Thrace. He received a degree in Classical Studies from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki [4] in 1955. He worked as a librarian from 1958 to 1965.
His first poem Age of Lean Cows was published in 1947. He was influenced by Constantine P. Cavafy [5] [6] and T.S. Eliot. Dimitriadis was gay, but he never claimed his sexuality. [7] He was awarded the 2011 National Grand Prix for Literature, but refused to pick it up. [8] Aristotle University of Thessaloniki awarded him an honorary doctorate in June 2011.
He died on 11 August 2020 at the age of 89. [9] His work was donated to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.