page_title: Yiannis Ritsos
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Yiannis Ritsos / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Skulptur Gefangene Steine 1 (1974) von Hans-Jürgen Breuste in Erlangen
context_page_description: Yiannis Ritsos was a Greek poet and left-wing activist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II.
context_section_description: Today, Ritsos is considered one of the great Greek poets of the twentieth century, alongside Konstantinos Kavafis, Kostas Kariotakis, Angelos Sikelianos, Giorgos Seferis, and Odysseas 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 in 1975, he declared "this prize is more important for me than the Nobel."
  His poetry was banned at times in Greece due to his left wing beliefs.
  Notable works by Ritsos include Tractor (1934), Pyramids (1935), Epitaphios (1936),  Vigil (1941–1953), Romiosini (1954) and 18 short songs of the bitter Motherland (18 lianotragouda tis pikris patridas) (1973).
  One of his most important poems is the 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
  Ritsos is also a Golden Wreath Laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings for 1985.
  His daughter, Eri, was a candidate for the European Parliament with KKE in the elections of 25 May 2014.
caption: Sculpture "Prisoner Stones 1" (1974) by Hans-Jürgen Breuste in Erlangen. Featuring a Yannis Ritsos' poem.
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