خاطرات تبعید

Yannis Ritsos is a poet whose writing life is entwined with the contemporary history of his homeland. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this volume, which presents a series of three diaries in poetry that Ritsos wrote between 1948 and 1950, during and just after the Greek Civil War, while a political prisoner first on the island of Limnos and then at the infamous camp on Makronisos. Even in this darkest of times, Ritsos dedicated his days to poetry, trusting in writing and in art as collective endeavors capable of resisting oppression and bringing people together across distance and time. These poems offer glimpses into the daily routines of life in exile, the quiet violence Ritsos and his fellow prisoners endured, the fluctuations in the prisoners’ sense of solidarity, and their struggle to maintain humanity through language. This moving volume justifies Ritsos’s reputation as one of the truly important poets in Greece’s modern literary history. Title Page Copyright Introduction DIARY OF EXILE I October 27, 1948 October 29 October 29 November 1 November 2 November 3 November 3 November 4 November 5 November 6 November 6 November 7 – Evening November 8 November 9 November 9 – Evening November 10 – Night November 11 November 12 November 13 November 14 November 15 November 16 November 17 November 18 November 19 November 21 November 21 November 21 November 22 November 23 DIARY OF EXILE II November 24, 1948 November 25 November 26 November 27 November 28 November 29 November 30 December 1 December 2 December 3 December 4 December 5 December 6 December 7 December 8 December 9 December 10 December 11 December 12 December 13 December 14 December 15 December 16 December 19 December 20 December 21 December 22 December 23 December 24 December 25 December 27 December 29 January 2, 1949 January 4 January 5 January 6 January 8 January 10 January 12 January 13 January 15 January 18 January 20 January 21 January 22 January 23 January 24 January 25 January 26 January 30 January 31 DIARY OF EXILE III January 18, 1950 January 27 February 3 February 7 February 15 February 19 February 21 February 23 February 24 March 3 April 24 April 25 May 1 May 3 May 4 May 5 May 6 May 7 May 8 May 9 May 10 May 11 May 11 May 14 May 14 May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18 May 19 May 22 May 24 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31 June 1 "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 (19091990) spent many years in sanatoriums, prisons, and in political exile while producing over one hundred volumes of poems, dramas, and translations.