Miltos Sachtouris

Miltos Sachtouris or Miltos Sahtouris (Greek: Μίλτος Σαχτούρης; July 19, 1919, Athens – March 29, 2005, Athens) was a Greek poet. He was a descendant of Georgios Sachtouris which had origins from Ydra island. When he was young he aborted his law studies to follow his real passion, poetry, and adopted the pen name Miltos Chrysanthis (Μίλτος Χρυσάνθης). Sachtouris then wrote his first poem, The Music Of My Islands, under his pen name, in 1941.

Sachtouris met Nikos Engonopoulos in 1943. He later worked with Engonopoulos on Ikaros. He began works and continued to idle at Brazilian on Voukourestiou Street along with Elytis, Sinopoulos, Vakalo, Papaditsas, Karouzos and others. In 1960, he began publishing When I Talk to you and The Spectres, or Joy on the Other Street. Two years later, he received the Second State Poet Prize in 1962 for The Stigmata. He later wrote The Seal, or The Eighth Moon (1964) and The Utensil (1971) from the publishings of Keimena.

He had a long term relationship since 1960 until his death with the artist Gianna Persaki. Gianna Persaki was the creative director in most of his publications after 1960 and he dedicated to her among many collections "Skevos" 1971 and several poems including "The Clocks Turned Upside Down". In 2003 Gianna Persaki, received the Greek State Prize of Literature on his behalf, a prize that was awarded by the Greek Ministry of Culture and the President of the Hellenic Republic. Accordingly, upon receipt of the award she made a public speech where she also quoted: "Nikos Karouzos is saying that life is a garden which fades away, and Sachtouris is saying life is a short violet".

During his last years of his life he worked on Colorwounds (1980), Ectoplasms (1986), Sinking (1990), Since (1996) and The Clocks Turned Upside Down (1998). He received the Grand State Literature Prize in 2003 for his works. In 1992 writer Lefteris Xanthopoulos shot a documentary titled Who's the Crazy Hare (The Crazy Hare being one of the poet's most known poems) about Sachtouris at the poet's house, in Kypseli, Athens. That day Lefteris Xanthopoulos asked him who is the Crazy Hare and the poet responded "I am".

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