Translated by Nikos Stangos. Introduction by Peter Bien. First published by Penguin 1974. Modern Greek Poetry. Athens: Efstathiadis Group 1981. Paperback, 212 pages.

Bought this book on my holiday in Agios Nikolaos, Crete in 1983.


The blurb:
YANNIS RITSOS
SELECTED POEMS
Despite his major international reputation as one of Europe’s most important poets today, this is the first English translation which attempts a comprehensive presentation of Yannis Ritsos’s voluminous work. Both short poems and one long narrative poem have been selected to illustrate dominant features of his poetry—his arresting use of metaphor; his manner of injecting complexity into simple scenes; his remarkable skill of fusing the legendary past of Greece with Greek life today. Together these deceptively simple and very moving poems convey something of the lyric and epic qualities of a great painter in words.
“It all happens as if this poet knew the secrets of my soul and as if only he—he alone, do you hear me?—could jolt me in such a manner. At first I did not know that he is the greatest living poet of our age. I swear I did not know it. I discovered it in stages, from one poem to the next, I almost said from one secret to the next, because with each poem I felt the stirrings of a revelation. I felt the revelation of a man and of a country, the depths of Man and of a country...”
“The Greatest Living Poet is Named Yannis Ritsos”

LOUIS ARAGON

Yiannis Ritsos at Wikipedia
Yannis Ritsos at Poetry Foundation
Yannis Ritsos at Encyclopædia Britannica
November 11, 1990: World of Poetry Mourns Passing of Yiannis Ritsos at Greek Reporter
Greek poet Yannis Ritsos's funeral in Monemvasia, Greece, on November 14, 1990 at Fosphotos

This collection takes me back to Greece I know, or knew, to be precise. I remember my first visit there, it was the era of kingdom. I remember, among other things, seeing the Crown Prince Constantin and his finance, Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, at Thermopylae. Somewhere, we still have a littele black-and-white photo of them, I think. Six years later, in my teens, I visited Greece again. So much had changed, the military junta had been in power for some two years and encouraged tourism. The landscape had changed, there were hotels everywhere. I've been to Greece a few times after that, of course, but somehow Yannis Ritsos reminded me of those days and those two trips. I enjoy his poetry. But, on the other hand, I'm sad because I seem to have forgotten so much about Greek history. Had I remembered it better, I probably would have gotten more out of some poems. I did enjoy this collection, anyway.

Vaihtotorilla / In the book swap shelf

LÖYTÄJÄLLE:

Kiitos, että nappasit tämän kirjan mukaasi ja tulit vielä vilkaisemaan sen matkapäiväkirjaa!
Tieto siitä, että kirja on hyvissä käsissä, on minulle tärkeä. Siksi pyydän sinua kertomaan, että se on sinulla. Toivon myös, että luettuasi kirjan poikkeat täällä uudestaan ja kirjoitat mietteitäsi lukemastasi. Sinun mielipiteesi kiinnostaa minua. :) Samalla voit myös kertoa mahdollisista jatkosuunnitelmistasi kirjan varalle.

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