Yiannis Ritsos Poet, translator of Russian poetry, laureate of the International Lenin Prize (1977) Date of Birth: 01.05.1909 Country: Greece

1. Biography of Yannis Ritsos
2. Revolutionary and Poetic Activities
3. World War II and Civil War
4. Post-War Era
5. Military Junta
6. Later Years
7. Awards and Honors

Biography of Yannis Ritsos

Yannis Ritsos was a Greek poet, translator of Russian poetry, and a laureate of the International Lenin Prize (1977). He was born in the small town of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese region, Greece. Ritsos came from a family of small landowners, his father Eleftherios Ritsos and his mother Eleftheria were of ancient aristocratic Greek descent. He studied at the Gitio Gymnasium from 1921 to 1925 and began writing poetry at a young age. His poems were first published in 1924 in the anthology "Children's Creativity".

In 1925, Ritsos's family faced financial difficulties, and his mother and brother died of tuberculosis. He moved to Athens and started working as a clerk at the National Bank of Greece. In 1926, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and his father was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Daphne, where he passed away in 1938. Ritsos underwent treatment at the Sotiria Hospital from 1927 to 1929 and was then transferred to a sanatorium in Chania. It was during this time that he became familiar with Marxist ideas and started his revolutionary and poetic activities.

Revolutionary and Poetic Activities

In 1931, Ritsos returned to Athens and collaborated with the left-wing journal "Protopori" ("Avant-garde") and also worked with a commercial theater as a director, actor, and dancer. He engaged closely with his working-class friends and joined the Communist Party of Greece. From 1934, Ritsos worked as a proofreader at the "Gavosti" publishing house. During this time, his first poetry collection titled "Tractor" was published, heavily influenced by Mayakovsky's futurism. He also contributed to the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece, "Rizospastis," with his "Letters from the Front." In 1935, his second poetry collection, "Pyramids," was published. In 1936, inspired by the tragic events of a tobacco factory workers' strike in Thessaloniki, Ritsos wrote the poem "Epitaph." However, after the fascist dictator Metaxas came to power, the poem was burned at the foot of the Acropolis.

In 1937, despite the ban on his works, Ritsos managed to join the Society of Greek Writers and experimented with surrealism. He published the poem "Song for My Sister" dedicated to his sister Lula, who, like his father, suffered from mental illness and received treatment in Daphne. In 1938, he published "Spring Symphony" and became a dancer at the State Royal Theater (now the National Theater of Greece). In 1940, he joined the National Opera Theater troupe and published the poem "Ocean March."

World War II and Civil War

During the Nazi occupation, Ritsos joined the National Liberation Front of Greece (EAM) and the People's Liberation Army of Greece (ELAS). He became a key figure in the anti-fascist resistance and continued to write revolutionary works. In 1942, he wrote the play "Woman on the Seashore" and the poem "The Last Century Addressed to Man." In 1943, Ritsos collaborated with the Athens-based journal "Free Literature" and published the collection "The Ordeal," from which the censors excluded the poem "Sunset." During the Greek Civil War, Ritsos was arrested in 1948 and sent to exile on the islands of Lemnos and Yaros. In May 1949, he was transferred to Makronisos, and in 1950, he was sent to Aios-Stratios. He was not released until 1952 after protests from several international cultural figures, including Louis Aragon, Pablo Neruda, and Pablo Picasso. After his release, Ritsos wrote "The Defiant City" and joined the newly formed United Democratic Left Party (EDA), led by Ioannis Pasalidis. He also collaborated with EDA's newspaper, "Avgi."

Post-War Era

In 1954, Ritsos married Garifalia Georgiadou, and they had a daughter named Eleftheria in 1955. In the same year, he received the State Poetry Prize for his poem-monologue "Moonlight Sonata" (translated into 20 languages). Ritsos visited the Soviet Union in 1956 and published his impressions in "Impressions of the Soviet Union." From 1958, he faced renewed persecution, and in 1959, he visited Romania and Bulgaria. In 1962, Ritsos visited Romania again, followed by Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Hungary. He also traveled to Cuba in 1966.

In 1960, Ritsos's poem "Epitaph" was released as an album, with music composed by renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. Ritsos also prepared an anthology of Czech and Slovak poets, translated works by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexander Blok's "Twelve," Alexei Tolstoy, Yanka Kupala's "Who Goes There?", and Taras Shevchenko's "Kobzar." He also translated works by revolutionary communist poets such as Nazim Hikmet from Turkey, Nicolas Guillen from Cuba, and Attila József from Hungary. Nicolas Guillen, in turn, translated Ritsos's works into Spanish.

Military Junta

After the military coup by the "black colonels" in 1967, Yannis Ritsos was imprisoned in concentration camps on the islands of Leros and Yaros. He was later placed in strict isolation on the island of Samos. However, he managed to secretly send poetry cycles titled "Stones, Repetition, Grids" and "Eighteen Melodies of a Bitter Homeland" to Mikis Theodorakis, who had managed to leave for France. The composer set these poems to music and performed them in his concerts.

Later Years

After the fall of the dictatorship, Ritsos settled in Athens, where he spent the last two decades of his life. In response to the escalation of interethnic hostilities between Greece and Turkey in Cyprus, he wrote "Hymn and Lament for Cyprus." Yannis Ritsos passed away on November 11, 1990, in Athens and was buried in his hometown of Monemvasia.

Awards and Honors

Yannis Ritsos received numerous international awards throughout his prolific career. He received his first award, the State Poetry Prize, in 1956. In 1970, he became a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Germany. In 1972, Ritsos was awarded the Grand International Prize at the "Knokke-le-Zoute" Biennale in Belgium. In 1975, he received the International Georgi Dimitrov Prize in Bulgaria and the Grand Prize in the name of romantic poet Alfred de Vigny in France.

In 1977, Ritsos was honored with the International Lenin Prize for the Strengthening of Peace between Nations (USSR). In 1979, he received the International Peace Award from the World Peace Council. Ritsos was an honorary doctor of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Birmingham (England). He was also an honorary member of the Mallarme Academy in France and an honorary doctor of Leipzig University (1984) and the University of Athens (1987).

In 1986, Yannis Ritsos was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1987, he received the UN Peace Prize and the Gold Medal of the Municipality of Athens.