Published in Western Australia in 1977, Twenty Two Poems is a bilingual collection by Greek-Australian writer Vasso Kalamaras, with the Greek originals presented alongside English translations by Kalamaras and Reg Durack.

Kalamaras was part of the first substantial generation of Greek-Australian writing and became particularly important for insisting on bilingual publication at a time when migrant literature was still commonly treated as culturally peripheral in Australia. Her work repeatedly moves between Greece and Australia, displacement and belonging, private memory and public history. 

These poems are spare, direct and emotionally unsheltered. Titles such as “Landscape and Soul,” “Sorrow,” “Revolution,” “Loneliness,” “Without Love,” “The Fortress” and “We Have Been Forgotten” give a fair sense of the terrain. The facing-page bilingual format literally holds two linguistic homes beside one another. Illustrated throughout with loose black-and-white line drawings, it is also a lovely object from the early history of multicultural publishing in Australia. The collection runs to 56 pages and was self-published by Kalamaras in Daglish, Western Australia. 

Published by the author, Daglish, Western Australia, 1977. First edition. Paperback. Bilingual Greek-English text. Translated by Reg Durack and the author. Illustrated in black and white. Moderate shelf wear, rubbing and creasing to covers, including a small old label/remnant to lower front cover; internally clean and sound. Good condition.