Ritsos, Giannis

Ritsos was born in the small town of Monemvasia on the Peloponnese in the family of the small landowner Eleftherios Ritsos. His mother, Eleutheria, came from the ancient aristocratic Greek family of Gitiu. In the period from 1921 to 1925 he studied at the Gitiu Grammar School. He began to write very early, already in 1924 his poems were published in the collection “Children's Creativity”. In 1925, the family is on the verge of ruin, mother and brother die from tuberculosis .

Giannis moves to Athens , where he begins to work as a clerk at the National Bank of Greece . In 1926, he was also diagnosed with tuberculosis, and his father ends up in an insane asylum in Daphne , where he dies in 1938. In the period 1927-1929, Ritsos was treated at the Sotiriya hospital. In 1930, he was transferred to the sanatorium of the city of Chania, where he first gives a fiery speech against the terrible conditions of tuberculosis patients. At this time, he became acquainted with the ideas of Marxism .

In 1931, Ritsos was able to return to Athens, where he collaborates with the left-wing magazine Protopori (Vanguard), as well as with the commercial theater as a director, actor and dancer. He communicates closely with fellow workers and joins the Communist Party of Greece . Since 1934 he has been working as a proofreader at the Gavosti publishing house. Then the first collection of Ritsos’s poems entitled “The Tractor” was published, written under the strong influence of Mayakovsky ’s futurism . Then Ritsos collaborates with the official organ of the KKE - the newspaper Rizospastis . On the pages of the latter are published "Letters to the Front."

In 1935, the second collection of Ritsos’s poems was published - Pyramids. In 1936, impressed by the tragic events of the strike of workers at a tobacco factory in Thessaloniki , Ritsos wrote the poem Epitaph. After the pro-fascist dictator Metaxas came to power, the poem Epitaph was burned at the foot of the Acropolis .

In 1937, Ritsos, despite the prohibition of his works, was able to join the Society of Greek Writers, experimenting with surrealism . In the same year he published the poem “A Song to My Sister,” which he dedicated to his sister Lula. She, like Yannis's father, suffered from mental illness and was treated in Daphne. In 1938, the Spring Symphony was published, and Ritsos himself became a dancer of the State Royal Theater (now the National Theater of Greece ). In 1940, he joined the troupe of the National Opera House and published the poem "March of the Ocean."

During the Nazi occupation, Ritsos joined the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM) and the People's Liberation Army of Greece (ELAS) . He becomes one of the key figures in anti-fascist resistance, continuing to write revolutionary works. In 1942, he wrote the dramatic production of “A Woman on the Seashore” and the poem “The Last Century to a Man”. In 1943, the poet collaborates in the journal Free Literature, published in Athens, and publishes the collection Test, from which censorship excludes the poem Sun Eve.

During the Civil War in Greece, the communist Yannis Ritsos was arrested in 1948 and sent into exile first to the island of Lemnos , in May 1949 to Makronisos , and in 1950 to Agios Stratios. The liberation came to the poet only in 1952 after a protest drawn up by a number of figures of world culture, in particular, Louis Aragon , Pablo Neruda and Pablo Picasso . Immediately after his release, Ritsos wrote The Unruly City and joined the newly formed United Democratic Left Party (EDU) , led by Ioannis Pasalidis . He also collaborates with EDA's Avgi newspaper.

In 1954, the poet marries Garifalia Georgiada. The couple had their only daughter, who was called Efterteria (b. 1955).

In 1956, Ritsos was awarded the first State Prize in the field of poetry for the monologue poem “Moonlight Sonata” (“Moonlight Sonata” was translated into 20 languages ​​of the world). The poet visits the USSR , after which he publishes Impressions of the Soviet Union (1956). Since 1958, he began to be persecuted again, the occasion being the dedication of the magazine Epitorisi Technis ("Overview of the Arts") to the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution . In 1959 he visits Romania and Bulgaria . In 1962, Ritsos again visited Romania, and then Czechoslovakia , East Germany , and Hungary . In 1966, he visited Cuba .

In 1960, “Epitaph” was released on a record; music for it was written by one of the most significant modern Greek composers Mikis Theodorakis . Ritsos also prepares an “Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poets”, translates the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky , Alexander Blok “The Twelve”, Aleksey Tolstoy , Yanka Kupala “And Who's Going There?”, Taras Shevchenko “Kobzar”, and also works of revolutionary poets into the modern Greek language. Communists - Turk Nazim Hikmet , Cuban Nicholas Guillen , Hungarian Attila Jozsef . Nicholas Guillen, in turn, translated the works of the Greek poet into Spanish.

After the military coup d'etat of the “black colonels” ( 1967 ), Yannis Ritsos was thrown into concentration camps on the islands of Leros , Yaros , and then imprisoned in strict isolation on the island of Samos . However, he manages to secretly send to Mikis Theodorakis , who managed to travel to France , the poetic cycles “Stones, Repetition, Lattices” and “Eighteen tunes of a bitter homeland”, which the composer put to music and performed at his concerts.

In 1973, Ritsos took part in student speeches against the right junta at the Athens Polytechnic University , known as the Uprising at the Athens Polytechnic University . He set forth his impressions in the poem Flesh and Blood.

After the fall of the dictatorship, Ritsos settled in Athens, where he spent the last two decades of his life. In response to the authoritarian regimes of Greece and Turkey inciting ethnic hatred in Cyprus, he wrote The Anthem and Weeping about Cyprus.

Ritsos died on November 11, 1990 in Athens and is buried in his homeland in Monemvasia.

For his fruitful creative life, Ritsos has been awarded many international awards. The first - State Prize in the field of poetry - he received in 1956.

In 1970 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz , Germany . In 1972 he was awarded the Grand International Prize at the Knokk-le-Zout Biennale, Belgium . In 1975, he was awarded the International George Dimitrov Prize ( Bulgaria ) and the Grand Prize named after the romantic poet Alfred de Vigny ( France ).

In 1977 he received the International Lenin Prize "For the consolidation of peace between peoples" ( USSR ). In 1979 he was awarded the International Prize of the World Peace Council .

Ritsos - Honorary Doctor of Thessaloniki University named after Aristotle , Honorary Doctor of Birmingham University ( England ); Honorary Member of the Academy of Mallarmé ( France ); Honorary Doctor of the University of Leipzig (1984) and the University of Athens (1987).

In 1986, Yannis Ritsos was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on Literature , and in 1987 the poet received the UN Prize and the gold medal of the Athens City Hall .

Collections

• Ποιήματα - Α τόμος , ( 1961 )
• Ποιήματα - Β τόμος , ( 1961 )
• "12 ποιήματα για τον Καβάφη" , ( 1963 )
• "Μαρτυρίες - Σειρά 1η" , ( 1963 )
• Ποιήματα - Γ τόμος , ( 1964 )
• "Μαρτυρίες - Σειρά 2η" , ( 1966 )
• " Δεκαοχτώ λιανοτράγουδα της πικρής πατρίδας " , ( 1973 )
• Ποιήματα - Δ τόμος , ( 1975 )

Poetry

• Τρακτέρ „ , ( 1934 )
• “Πυραμίδες” , ( 1935 )
• Επιτάφιος , ( 1936 )
• "Το τραγούδι της αδελφής μου" , ( 1937 )
• Εαρινή συμφωνία , ( 1938 )
• "Το εμβατήριο του ωκεανού" , ( 1940 )
• "Παλιά μαζούρκα σε ρυθμό βροχής" , ( 1943 )
• Δοκιμασία , ( 1943 )
• Ο σΟντροφός μας , ( 1945 )
• "Γειτονιές του κόσμου" , ( 1949 )
• "Ο άνθρωπος με το γαρύφαλλο" , ( 1952 )
• Αγρύπνια , ( 1954 )
• Πρωινό άστρο , ( 1955 )
• "Η σονάτα του σεληνόφωτος" , ( 1956 )
• Χρονικό , ( 1957 )
• Πέτρινος χρόνος , ( 1957 )
• Αποχαιρετισμός , ( 1957 )
• Υδρία „ , ( 1957 )
• “Χειμερινή διαύγεια" , ( 1957 )
• "Οι γειτονιές του κόσμου" , ( 1957 )
• "Η αρχιτεκτονική των δέντρων" , ( 1958 )
• Οταν έρχεται ο ξένος , ( 1958 )
• "Ανυπόταχτη πολιτεία" , ( 1958 )
• "Οι γερόντισσες κ 'η θάλασσα" , ( 1959 )
• Το παράθυρο , ( 1960 )
• "Η γέφυρα" , ( 1960 )
• Ο Μαύρος Αγιος , ( 1961 )
• "Το νεκρό σπίτι" , ( 1962 )
• "Κάτω απ 'τον ίσκιο του βουνού" , ( 1962 )
• "Το δέντρο της φυλακής και οι γυναίκες" , ( 1963 )
• "12 ποιήματα για τον Καβάφη" , ( 1963 )
• Μαρτυρίες Α , ( 1963 )
• "Παιχνίδια τ'ουρανού και του νερού" , ( 1964 )
• Φιλοκτήτης , ( 1965 )
• Ρωμιοσύνη , ( 1966 )
• Ορέστης , ( 1966 )
• Μαρτυρίες Β , ( 1966 )
• Όστραβα , ( 1967 )
• "Πέτρες, Επαναλήψεις, Κιγκλίδωμα" , ( 1972 )
• Η Ελένη , ( 1972 )
• Χειρονομίες , ( 1972 )
• Τέταρτη διάσταση , ( 1972 )
• "Η επιστροφή της Ιφιγένειας" , ( 1972 )
• Ισμήνη , ( 1972 )
• Χρυσόθεμις , ( 1972 )
• " Δεκαοχτώ λιανοτράγουδα της πικρής πατρίδας " , ( 1973 )
• "Γκραγκάντα" , ( 1973 )
• "Διάδρομος και σκάλα" , ( 1973 )
• "Σεπτήρια και Δαφνηφόρια" , ( 1973 )
• “Καπνισμένο τσουκάλι" , ( 1974 )
• "Ο αφανισμός της Μήλος" , ( 1974 )
• "Υμνος και θρήνος για την Κύπρο" , ( 1974 )
• Κωδωνοστάσιο , ( 1974 )
• Χάρτινα „ , ( 1974 )
• “Ο τοίχος μέσα στον καθρέφτη" , ( 1974 )
• "Η Κυρά των Αμπελιών" , ( 1975 )
• "Η τελευταία προ Ανθρώπου Εκατονταετία" , ( 1975 )
• Τα επικαιρικά , ( 1975 )
• "Ημερολόγιο εξορίας" , ( 1975 )
• Μαντατοφόρες , ( 1975 )
• Θυρωρείο , ( 1976 )
• Το μακρινό , ( 1977 )
• "Το ρόπτρο
• »Γραφή Τυφλού
• "Τα ερωτικά
• Ανταποκρίσεις " , ( 1987 )

Drama

• "Μια γυναίκα πλάι στη θάλασσα„ , ( 1942 )
• “Πέρα απ'τον ίσκιο των κυπαρισσιών" , ( 1947 )
• "Τα ραβδιά των τυφλών" , ( 1959 )
• "Ο λόφος με το συντριβάνι"

Translations

• "Α.Μπλόκ: Οι δώδεκα" , ( 1957 )
• "Ανθολογία Ρουμανικής ποίησης" , ( 1961 )
• Αττίλα Γιόζεφ: Ποιήματα , ( 1963 )
• Μαγιακόφσκι: Ποιήματα , ( 1964 )
• "Ντόρας Γκαμπέ: Εγώ, η μητέρα μου και ο κόσμος" , ( 1965 )
• "Ιλία 'Ερεμπουργκ: Το δέντρο" , ( 1966 )
• "Ναζίμ Χικμέτ: Ποιήματα" , ( 1966 )
• "Ανθολογία Τσέχων και Σλοβάκων ποιητών" , ( 1966 )
• "Νικόλας Γκιλλιέν: Ο μεγάλος ζωολογικός κήπος" , ( 1966 )
• "Α.Τολστόη: Η γκρινιάρα κατσίκα" , ( 1976 )
• "Φ.Φαριάντ: Ονειρα με χαρταετούς και περιστέρια" , ( 1988 )
• "Χο τσι Μινχ: Ημερολόγιο της φυλακής

Travel Notes

• "Εντυπώσεις απο τη Σοβιετική Ενωση" , ( 1956 )
• Ιταλικό τρίπτυχο , ( 1982 )

Russian translations

• "Poems . " - M., 1959
• "Selected Lyrics . " - M., 1968
• "The eve of the sun . " Poem // Foreign Literature, 1969. No. 5. P. 116-120.
• "Favorites" . - M., 1973.

• Brief Encyclopedia of Literature. M., 1971. T. 6. S.310-311.
• Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Russian)
• Yannis Ritsos Blog (Greek)
• Yannis Ritsos - 100th Birth Anniversary (Russian)

The works of Ritsos:

• The Dead House / Translation by Sofya Ilyinskaya (Russian)
• Ismena / Translation by Maurice Waxmacher (Russian)
• Greek myths in world poetry - XX century // Yannis Ritsos (Russian)

• Mitsos Alexandropoulos. Janis Ritsos today. // Foreign literature. 1975. No. 10.- S. 213–219.