Diaries of Exile

"Without Ritsos' eloquence, Greeks would have forgotten how to name all those things that are there before their eyes."—Pantelis Prevelakis

This long poem is a nuanced and moving account of the poet's time in exile, in which everyday events hide much that is threatening, oppressive, and spiritually vacuous. Lyrical and idyllic, these re-creations of Greek mythology justify Yannis Ritsos' reputation as one of the most honored in modern Greece.

Plagued by tuberculosis, family misfortunes, and persecution for his Communist views, Yannis Ritsos (1909–1990) spent many years in sanatoriums, prisons, and in political exile while producing over one hundred volumes of poems, dramas, and translations.

YANNIS RITSOS (1909 - 1990) Plagued by turberculosis, family misfortunes, and repeated persecution for his Communist views, Ritsos spent many years in sanatoriums, prisons, or in political exile while producing dozen of volumes of lyrics, dramas and translations. Despite all his misfortunes, Ritsos eventually achieved a personal, humanitarian medium devoid of anger and recrimination. In long poems like his celebrated Romiosyni (1947), Moonlight Sonata (1956) and most of his later volumes, Ritsos writes with compassion and hope, celebrating the life, toil, and dignity of the common man in an unadorned and direct language. In 1967, Ritsos was arrested again by the Greek junta and exiled, and was prohibited from publishing until 1972. By the end of his life, and contrary to all odds, Ritsos had published 117 books, including numerous plays and essays.

KAREN EMMERICH has translated work by Vassilis Vassilikos, Yiorgos Skabardonis, Rhea Galanake, Miltos Sachtouris, and a variety of Greek poets of the twentieth century. She has received translation grants and awards from PEN and from the Modern Greek Studies Association. She teaches in Cyprus.

EDMUND KEELEY is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Princeton University and Director of Hellenic Studies program there. In addition to this translations and ciritical studies of modern Greek poetry, he has written five novels and a historical study, The Salonika Bay Murder: Cold War Politics and the Polk Affair (Princeton). Keeley's translations of Yannis Ritsos' shorter poems received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of American Poets and the First European Prize for the Translation of Poetry awarded by the European Economic Community.