At the Edge of the Port

Description:

Published in a collection of poems under the title Γραφή Τυφλού [Writings of a Blind Man] (1979). However, the poem was published previously in a newspaper/literary magazine that Sicilianos read and annotated as is documented in his archive. See Sicilianos Archive Files for Six Songs

About the Poet:

Yannis Ritsos (Γιάννης Ρίτσος) (1909-1990) was born in Monemvasia (Μονεμβασιά), Laconia (Λακωνία), the son of the large landowner Eleftherios Ritsos (Ελευθέριος Ρίτσος) and Eleftheria (Ελευθερία), née Vouzzounara (Βουζουναρά). He had three siblings. In 1919, he graduated from the Monemvasia School and in 1921 enrolled in the Gythio Gymnasium. That same year, his brother Dimitris (Δημήτρης) (Mimis – Μίμης) and his mother passed away. In 1924, he published his first poems in “Diaplasi ton Paidon” (Διάπλαση των Παίδων) under the pseudonym “Idanikon Orama” (Ιδανικόν Όραμα). In 1925, he completed his secondary education in Gythio (Γύθειο) and moved to Athens (Αθήνα) with his sister Loula (Λούλα). Following his father’s financial ruin, Ritsos worked in Athens, initially as a typist and later as a copyist at the National Bank. In 1926, he fell ill with tuberculosis and returned to Monemvasia until autumn, when he enrolled in the Athens Law School but never attended. He worked as an assistant librarian and clerk at the Athens Bar Association. In January 1927, he was hospitalised at the Papadimitriou Clinic and later entered the Sotiria Sanatorium, where he remained for three years. At Sotiria (Σωτηρία), Ritsos met Maria Polydouri (Μαρία Πολυδούρη) and other Marxist intellectuals of his time, while also writing some poems that were published in the literary supplement of the Great Encyclopaedia. From the autumn of 1930, he lived in Chania (Χανιά) for a year, initially at the Kapsalona Tuberculosis Asylum, and after personally denouncing the terrible living conditions there in a local newspaper, he was transferred with all the residents to the Agios Ioannis Sanatorium. In October 1931, he returned to Athens and took over the direction of the Workers’ Club’s artistic section, where he directed and participated in performances. His health gradually improved, as did his finances, with the help of his sister Loula, who had married and moved to America. The following year, his father was admitted to the Daphni Psychiatric Hospital, where he died in 1938. Five years later, Loula followed him, leaving the hospital in 1939. In 1933, he collaborated with the leftist magazine “Pioners” (Πρωτοπόροι) and worked in commercial theatre for four years (Zozos Dalmas – Ζωζώς Νταλμάς, Ritsiardis – Ριτσιάρδης, Makedos – Μακέδος troupes). He also wrote for the “Rizospastis” (Ριζοσπάστης) columns—where he published his first poetry collection “Tractor” (Τρακτέρ) under the pseudonym I. Sostir (Ι. Σοστίρ)—and “Free Letters” (Ελεύθερα Γράμματα) (1945). In 1934, he was hired as an editor at the Govostis (Γκοβόστης) publishing house and joined the Communist Party of Greece (Κ.Κ.Ε.). In 1937, he was hospitalised at the Parnitha Sanatorium. The following year, he was hired at the Royal Theatre and in 1940 at the National Opera. During the Greco-German war and the occupation, Ritsos was bedridden but participated in the educational activities of the National Liberation Front (ΕΑΜ) and refused financial aid when his life was threatened by hardships. During the Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά) events, he often visited Kaisariani (Καισαριανή), met with Aris Velouchiotis (Άρης Βελουχιώτης), and collaborated with the Popular Theatre of Macedonia. In 1948, he was exiled for his leftist activities to Kontopouli (Κοντοπούλι), Limnos (Λήμνος), and later to Makronisos (Μακρόνησος) in 1949, and from 1950-1951 to Agios Efstratios (Άη Στράτης). In 1952, he returned to Athens and joined the United Democratic Left (ΕΔΑ). In 1954, he married paediatrician Philitsa Georgiadou (Φηλίτσα Γεωργιάδου) from Samos (Σάμος), with whom he had a daughter, Eri (Έρη). In 1956, he travelled to the Soviet Union as part of a delegation of intellectuals and journalists and visited Romania in 1959. In 1962, he revisited Romania, where he met Nazim Hikmet, and then went to Czechoslovakia, where he completed an anthology of Czech and Slovak poets, Hungary, and East Germany. In 1964, he participated in the parliamentary elections with EDA. After the 1967 coup by Papadopoulos, he was exiled again to Gyaros (Γυάρος) and Leros (Λέρος), and in 1968 to Samos, where he was under house arrest at his wife’s home for health reasons. In 1970, he returned to Athens but, after refusing to compromise with the Papadopoulos regime, he was re-exiled to Samos until the end of the year, when he underwent surgery at the Athens General Clinic. In 1973, he participated in the Polytechnic (Πολυτεχνείο) events. After the fall of the dictatorship and the transition to democracy, he lived mainly in Athens and was honoured for his work both in Greece and internationally. Some of the accolades he received include the Grand International Poetry Prize at the Biennale of Knokke-le-Zoute in Belgium (1972), the Dimitrov International Prize in Sofia (1975), the Grand French Poetry Prize Alfred de Vigny, the Lenin Peace Prize (1977), the International Prize of the World Peace Council (1979), the United Nations International Peace Poet Prize, the Golden Medal of the Municipality of Athens (1987), the Grigoris Lambrakis Peace Medal (1989), the Grand Star of the Friendship of Peoples (East Germany), and the Joliot-Curie Medal (1990). In 1986, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize. He was a member of the Hellenic Authors’ Society (1937) and the Academy of Arts and Sciences Mainz of the Federal Republic of Germany and was awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη) (1975), Birmingham (Μπίρμιγχαμ) (1978), Karl Marx University in Leipzig (1984), and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens (1987). He died in November 1990 and was buried in his hometown. A fundamental characteristic of Yannis Ritsos’ poetry was its commitment to humanism, love, and Greek identity. During his sixty-year intellectual journey, Ritsos quickly moved from the neo-romanticism and neo-symbolism of the interwar period to politically committed art in favour of communism, within which he developed a genuinely lyrical writing style and projected his worldview, remaining an extremely sensitive observer of the political and social developments in Greece and worldwide throughout his life. For more biographical details on Yannis Ritsos, see G. Veloudis, “Ritsos Yannis”, in “World Biographical Dictionary”, vol. 9a, Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1988, Angeliki Kotti, “Chronology of Yannis Ritsos”, Nea Estia (Νέα Εστία) magazine, issue 130, Christmas 1991, no. 1547, pp. 4-9, Thodoris Petropoulos, “Chronology of Yannis Ritsos”, Diavazo (Διαβάζω) magazine, issue 205, 21/12/1988, pp. 34-46, Yannis H. Pappas, “Chronology of Yannis Ritsos”, Elitrohos (Ελί-τροχος) magazine, issue 4-5, Winter 1994-1995, pp. 15-31, Angeliki Kotti, “Yannis Ritsos: a biography outline”, Athens, Ellinika Grammata (Ελληνικά Γράμματα), 1997, and Chrysa Prokopaki, Aikaterini Makrynikola & Yorgis Yiatromanolakis, “Yannis Ritsos 1909-1990: one hundred years since his birth”, National Book Centre (Εθνικό Κέντρο Βιβλίου), Athens, 2010.

Source: Biblionet.gr