Famous Greek poet Kiki Dimoula passed away before 6pm on Saturday after being hospitalised for 20 days.
An esteemed member of the Academy of Athens, she died at the age of 88 following a heart attack, the hospital where she spent her last 20 days.
Dimoula, nee Vassiliki Radou, was born in Athens on 6 June, 1931 and was employed by the National Bank of Greece from 1949 to 1973.
Her husband, talented civil engineer Athos Dimoulas who died in 1985, was also a published poet, but his work never became as popular as hers.
Dimoula, even though she disowned her first collection which was published in 1952 and was her shot to fame, was always loved by the public even though she often sparked controversy among peers and social commentators.
The late poet received numerous awards and became a member of the Athens Academy in 2002, not to mention the third woman to be elected at the literature chair.
Dimoula, who is survived by a son, a daughter, and their children also received the European Prize for Literature in 2009.
She was also famous for her quotes:
“I use humor to exorcise death. Poetry can make absence into presence. I call on the dead. I invoke death.”
“We fall in love to conquer the fear of not feeling. Love is always matter of one person, not of two. a victim of our pandering ego.”
“It [poetry] isn’t made by poets, who are not creators but explorers, each in their own way.”
