Irlandos: New page: '''Yiannis Ritsos''' (Monemvasia May 1 1909 - Athens November 11 1990) was a Greek poet. Ritsos is considered to be one of the four greatest Greek poet...

2008-11-19T13:53:35Z

New page: '''Yiannis Ritsos''' (Monemvasia May 1 1909 - Athens November 11 1990) was a Greek poet. Ritsos is considered to be one of the four greatest Greek poet...

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'''Yiannis Ritsos''' ([[Monemvasia]] [[May 1]] [[1909]] - [[Athens]] [[November 11]] [[1990]]) was a [[Greeks|Greek]] poet.

Ritsos is considered to be one of the four greatest Greek poets of the twentieth century, together with [[Kostis Palamas]], [[Giorgos Seferis]], and [[Odysseus Elytis]]. The French poet Louis Aragon once said that Ritsos was "the greatest poet of our age." He was unsuccessfully proposed nine times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he won the Lenin Peace Prize (also known as the ''Stalin Peace Prize'' prior to [[1956]]) he declared "this prize it's more important for me than the Nobel".

His poetry was banned at times in Greece for its left wing content. Notable works by Ritsos include ''Tractor'' ([[1934]]), ''Pyramids'' ([[1935]]), ''Epitaph'' ([[1936]]), and ''Vigil'' ([[1941]]–[[1953]]).

Ritsos mainly wrote poems with political content, "serving communism with his art" as modern philologists describe. One of his few works that differ is ''Moonlight Sonata''.

:''I know that each one of us travels to love alone,''
:''alone to faith and to death.''
:''I know it. I’ve tried it. It doesn’t help.''
:''Let me come with you.''
::—from ''Moonlight Sonata''. Translation by Peter Green and Beverly Bardsley

==External links==
* [http://www.aurora.komvux.norrkoping.se/zoula/litera/01/poetry.htm POETRY] translated into English
* [http://greece.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=2678 MOONLIGHT SONATA] in Greek & translated in English

==References==
''Late Into the Night: The Last Poems of Yannis Ritsos'', trans. Martin McKinsey (Oberlin College Press, 1995). ISBN 0-932440-71-1

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:poets|Ritsos, Yiannis]]
[[Category:communists|Ritsos, Yiannis]]
[[Category:1909 births|Ritsos, Yiannis]]
[[Category:1990 deaths|Ritsos, Yiannis]]

Yiannis Ritsos - Revision history

Irlandos: New page: '''Yiannis Ritsos''' (Monemvasia May 1 1909 - Athens November 11 1990) was a Greek poet. Ritsos is considered to be one of the four greatest Greek poet...