Cultural writing. Biography and Memoir. Edited and translated from the Greek by Roderick Beaton. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Greek poet and diplomat George Seferis stands as one of the giants of twentieth-century literature. This book presents for the first time in English selections from the journals he kept while traveling in the Middle East. With characteristic vividness and concision, Seferis reflects both on what he sees and what lies behind (and ahead of) the visible, as the journals include superb passages of travel writing and meditations on the Levant's Hellenistic legacy, the holy sites of the region, the history of prominent British women travelers to the area, and of course the turbulent politics of his day. As such, they move between private and public dimensions of the poet's life and provide an intimate look into his world.