Ritsos, Centenary of Birth

Yannis Ritsos was born in 1909. He died, aged 81, in November 1990. The Ministry of Culture declared 2009 as "The Year of Yannis Ritsos".

I've read a lot of his work over the years. It's not difficult to read or to understand, even in Greek. I met him in 1984. He had wonderful handwriting too (see above) and he was a talented painter. This summer there was an exhibition of his paintings in Monemvasia. If you don't like reading poetry, you can always listen to it (eg Romiosyni, Epitaphios) set to music by Mikis Theodorakis.

Much of his work has been translated into English. I recently found "Late into the night: The Last Poems of Yannis Ritsos", translated by Martin McKinsey, in a Corfu bookshop. It's a powerful collection. He didn't win the Nobel Prize, like Seferis and Elytis, but he should have done.

Times and tastes may have changed, but we shouldn't forget the centenary of his birth.