The ups and downs of the circle,
and the wheel that goes high and low,
and the changes of the weather that have no rest,
but walk and run in good and bad,
and the disturbances of the chariots, enemies and burdens,
the trade of Love and the grace of kisses,
all these moved me today
to elevate and tell the deeds and actions
to a girl and a young man who got confused together
in an innocent kiss, without any harm.
And whoever has worked for desire for some time,
let them come to understand what is written here.
Understand it, then...

The metrical love novel of Vitsentzos Kornaros has been the most popular reading of the Greek people for centuries. And although it has been criticized as a cheap popular creation ("miscarriage" is how Korais characterizes it and "novel for maidservants" is how Mistriotis characterizes it), it has influenced modern Greek poetry more than any other text, from Solomos to Seferis. Today it is considered one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance on a pan-European scale. Vitsentzos Kornaros died in Handaka in 1613 at the age of sixty and was buried in the monastery of Agios Frangiskos.