Friday, February 27, 2015

Yannis Ritsos-Calendar entries, 17, 22 November 1973

Yannis Ritsos's calendar, week of the Polytechnic uprising and junta repression, 16-22 November 1973

17 November
Heavy silence, punctured by shots, bitter city,
blood, fire, the fallen door, the smoke, the vinegar
Who will say I am waiting from the interior darkness.

Little rope-walkers with big shoes and a bandage of fire on the forehead
red wire, red bird, the lonely dog in the isolated suburbs,
as the palest day dawns behind the smoke-painted statues
and the last scream is heard, dissolved on the avenues
behind the tanks, inside the scattered shots.
So how can you sleep? How can you then sleep?

22 November
How slowly the knife grows. He who is silent,
it isn't that he has nothing to say
it isn't the twelve nails on the wall, the locust in the glass
it is that he is waiting for his jaws to unclench.

Translated by Lenin Reloaded.

2 comments:

  1. Source of the image? And do they exist anywhere in the original Greek? Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Please see here for both: http://zbabis.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post_90.html

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