Balkan Library

"Ariostos the Attentive Narrates Moments of His Life and Dreams", Yannis Ritsos

© Yannis Ritsos, 1983
Translator: Zdravka Mihailova
First edititon, 2005. Greek. 93 pages. Price 2,5 euro

Because of his ideological background Y. Ritsos was one of the most extensively translated Greek poets in Bulgaria during the last 40 years (until 1989). The Bulgarian readership was mainly familiar with his oeuvre propagating the ideas of the revolutionary left. Writing very proliferously Ritsos is the author of twelve volumes of poetry. In his mature age his writing responds not only to social problems, but also to the problems of everyday life where humanitarian touch dominates his poetic stigma. Ariostos the Attentive Narrates Moments from His Life and Dreams is a different and an unusual in its genre book. It contains miniatures in which reminiscences of past experiences intertwine with flashes of thought and fantastic visions. With their poetic language, associative and emotional multi-colorfulness these short fragments in prose are elegant impressions and sometimes their metaphoric insight even makes them read as parabola.

Also interesting is the story of how the book was written. Initially (with 33 fragments) it was written in 1942 during the German occupation. In 1971 the poet returned to this text discovering in it a work with original aesthetics and modern sounding. Then he added another 16 miniatures. Together with another 8 books of fragments in prose Ariostos the Attentive Narrates Moments from His Life and Dreams forms the series of books known under the general title Iconostasis of Anonymous Saints.

For the Bulgarian reading public it will be interesting to get to know a different aspect of Ritsos’ writing revealed in the proposed for translation book.