A broken man in flower / David Harsent, Yannis Ritsos, introduction by John Kittmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harsent, David, author.

Contributor:

Ritsos, Yannis, illustrator.

Kittmer, John, illustrator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (175 pages)

Place of Publication:

Hexham, England : Bloodaxe Books Ltd, [2023]

Summary:

A Broken Man in Flower presents new versions of work by one of the most significant Greek poets of the last century, translated by one of the UK's most renowned contemporary poets. The life of Yannis Ritsos was, to say the least, troubled. From an early age, he was dogged by the tuberculosis that killed his mother and brother. His father and sister suffered breakdowns and spent time in institutions. His poem Epitaphios (1936), a lament for a young man shot dead by the police during a tobacco workers' strike, was publicly burned by the Metaxas regime and his books banned. Throughout his life he wa repeatedly persecuted, arrested and placed under house arrest by the oppressive Greek authorities. The violence and tyranny of dictatorship is often fractured by the surreal. In the poems collected here, written by Ritsos while in prison and under house arrest, that fracture in perception is a wound. A Broken Man in Flower has an introduction by John Kittmer and includes the text of an illuminating and vivid letter sent by Ritsos to his publisher in 1969 while under house arrest on Samos describing his life - and the lives of Greeks - under the repressive rule of the Colonels. Harsent's versions of Ritsos' poems express the revolutionary and experimental nature of his work while also remaining accurate translations from the Greek.

Contents:

Intro

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Contents

Introduction by John Kittmer

I. Karlovasi on Samos, 2 April 1969

Yannis Ritsos, under house arrest at Karlovasi on Samos, writes to his friend and publisher, Nana Kallianesi

II. The Broken Man in Flower

Timeline of Ritsos's life and key work

A Broken Man in Flower

I. Partheni Prison Camp, Leros

The Treaty

Penelope

The Plough

Unmarked

The Argo

The Studio

A Painting

A Break in Routine

Naked

Growing Old

Blocked

Newspeak

The Wax Museum

Endgame

Hindsight

Knowledge

The Blue Jug

Cancer

On the Edge

Blockade

Words

Content

Midnight

The Message

Things Shift

Double

Something and Nothing

Stones

Watermelons

No News

All of Us

Convalescence

Shame

In Short

At Dusk

The Corridor

II. Homeland: Eighteen Bitter Songs Partheni Prison Camp / Samos

1: Baptism

2: Q&amp

A

3: In Time

4: The People

5: Memorial

6: Dawn

7: 'Freedom

8: Green

9: Theology

10: To Greece

11: The Song

12: Offshore Trees

13: Feast Day

14: Epitaph

15: The Tides

16: The New House

17: One Thought

18: No Tears For Romiosini

III. Samos: house arrest

Abandoned

Poem

Ceremony

As If Loukas

Underwater

Fear

Substitution

Separate Ways

The View from Here

Just This

Squaddies

Reversals

Kollyva

Saturday 11 a.m.

Aware

Birdcall

Why?

Connections

Wrong

Out in the Open

The List

Followed

From Nowhere to Nowhere

Circle

Plans

Old Clothes

Memory's Thread

Himself Alone

Frost

Departures III

Suspicion

That Other Man

Numbers

Absentee

In Reverse

Soldier Dolls

Waiting to Die

Almost

Before She Sleeps

Motionless

Woodworm

Omens

White.

The Tree - The Hanged Man

The Other House

White Night

Life in Phares

Masquerade

After Rain

Nausea

Habit

Leaves

Quotidian

Rain

By the Window

In Flower

Three-storey House with Basement

Call

Locked Off

Changes

Lies and Secrets

Ever

Fakes

Pointless

The Girl Who Regained Her Sight

Interrogation Centre

Locked

Badge of Honour

Midnight Knock

This

The Green Armchair

Sleepless

Baptism of Blood

The Summons

Renewal

In Readiness

Report

Greece

Hints

Broken

Testament

Copyright.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Harsent, David A Broken Man in Flower

ISBN:

1-78037-650-2

OCLC:

1373985229