Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume I

Posted: 28/12/2025 by vequinox in Literature
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But as the serene houses wave
to us tenderly
with the stooping acacia on the white wall
the flash of the great sea
will move among us
to win us over once again
Ai captain
eat your dried-up bread quickly
and the black olive
dipped in salt and in the sun
over the vertical rock
Time to set sail
As we breath
the glaucous sail of zephyr unfurls
and its sunlit pleats
wave
up to behind happy breasts
of the distant mountains
There are no borders for our heart
falling in love with the sea
A banner of health
that doesn’t hesitate
nailed onto stone salutes the sky
stirring over people
large shadows of dew
from the morning sea
with its white sails and islands
flowering in the midst of May
Behind the rocks crawls the deserted
silver thought of moon

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excerpt

She responded with a passionate kiss, then led him to
her office where he sat on the couch while she took a file and a
notepad from her desk and walked back over to him.
By now Eteo had something very different from paperwork on
his mind. He gazed eagerly at her full lips, her shapely legs, her small,
pert breasts. He was fired up, and Rebecca responded in kind. She
made his searching gaze easier by pausing in front of him and slowly
taking her clothes off one article at a time. Eteo had never paid such
close attention to her beautiful lines, her balanced curves, or her silky
skin. Rebecca enjoyed provoking him and savored the first taste of
the passion she had fired up in his veins when she stepped closer to
him and Eteo pulled her onto the couch and putting his mouth between
her legs aroused her sexuality to the stratosphere. Without letting
her do anything at all, Eteo turned her on all fours and crashed
inside her from behind, moving violently and roughly in and out of
her body, pushing her to sexual apexes beyond anything she had experienced
before today. Rebecca moaned and screamed with every
orgasm until, exhausted, she pulled away from him and lay in front
of him, face down on the couch. He let her take her break. He needed
one too.
Several minutes went by before Rebecca turned to him and, seeing
the fire still burning in his eyes, asked, “What prompted such passion
today, Eteo?”
He shrugged. He didn’t know. He only knew he had suddenly
wanted her in that violent way and no other. He only knew he had
loved it and that Rebecca had too.
As if reading his thoughts, Rebecca said, “I loved it, my lovely
Eteo. I’ve longed for such lovemaking for a long time.” en she
laughed. “Would you like to talk business now?”
He smiled at her. Yes, he would love to talk business now. Yes,
she had been superb in their erotic interlude. Yes, he and Rebecca
had enjoyed their secret pact for a few years now. Whenever they
met, it either happened or did not. It was never prearranged, never
thought about in advance, never pretended, only thought about when
it happened, and they loved it every time.

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Arrows

Posted: 28/12/2025 by vequinox in Literature
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excerpt

perused it, examining the minuscule symbols bordered with lines
and drawings of the things in heaven and hell.
“Mareoka, message.” I insisted. “You kill us. No message.”
Guacaipuro threw the book away, distressed by this effrontery. It
was a measure of his absolute power among his people that he did
not worry about expressing himself in front of them.
“Mareoka is not white!” he said. “Mareoka is Carib!”
I nodded. As calmly as possible. I made it clear to him that I
respected Mareoka.
“We must talk,” I said.

For one hour Tamanoa and I were tied together against the trunk of a
rubber tree. During this time we were able to discuss what had
transpired with Guacaipuro. Tamanoa did not approve of my
approach, but he agreed that falling on our knees and asking for
mercy was not advisable either.
“Our best hope is Apacuana,” I said. “If I know her at all, I think she
will agree tomarry Baruta, and ask Guacaipuro to spare us in return.”
“To spare you, my friend,” Tamanoa said, mournfully. “They
despise mixed-bloods.”
“Are you sure they can tell?”
He laughed.
“They can smell the difference.”
Nearby the Indians tended their fires, cooking and talking as they
might have done on any other day. Some regarded us indifferently,
others ignored us. In the sky above, vultures circled. I was hoping to
be fed, but everyone stayed away. I imagined Apacuana would
bring us some water, but even she left us untended.
Two warriors came towards us and I was relieved to see they did
not bring weapons. They untied us. They took the rope from the tree
and tied my right leg to Tamanoa’s left leg. Whether this measure
was taken to prevent us from running away, or merely to humiliate
us, I cannot say.

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Marginal

Posted: 28/12/2025 by vequinox in Literature
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XIII
Come, sit next to me, and let us smell
the sweet aroma of freshly harvested
glover with a multitude of sparrows
chasing the cicadas and the salty trees
by the shore breathing salinity mixed
with serenity and watery passion
under the auspices of the soft bending
of branches and let us listen to the kids
playing football on the open field
five sunburned village boys with bright eyes
and future written in their irises and
we copy all the images from the quiet
light blue transcendence of the terrace
that charges into our bedroom and
onto the outline of your body
unparalleled eternity and longing
of my palm seeking your ethereal lines.

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excerpt

“And Lona probably knows there’s something going on,” said David, “’cause she was up on deck this morning, too.”
“It doesn’t have to be a big cloak and dagger issue,” Paul said. “I’ll just announce to the authorities—maybe Ivan Nikolaevich or Natasha—that I want to defect to the Soviet Union. It happens. They’ll be delighted.” He rattled on, calmed by the acquiescence. “At first, they’ll think I’m a spy. I’ll have to prove I’m not. Then I figure we can get on with living.”
Jennifer felt a fresh wave of anger. “How naïve are you? Of course they’ll think you’re a spy, a plant. You’ll be interrogated, maybe sent away. You don’t get it. All this first class treatment we’ve been getting is for visitors, not for citizens. Listen”—he was waving her away—”in Leningrad I met a Cuban, a musician, who opted to move here. You think they gave him an award? Put him in an orchestra? No. He’s now living in a condemned slum with a 10-rouble-a- week job sweeping floors. That’s what will happen to you.”
Paul sat down on the bunk with a sudden thump, his knapsack at his feet. “No, they wouldn’t do that—they wouldn’t break us up. And they wouldn’t mistreat me. I’m still a Canadian citizen.”
“Like I said, how naïve are you? You could see the inside of a Soviet jail for a long time while they’re deciding what to do with you.”
Paul fidgeted nervously, the bravado gone from his face.
Jennifer went on, “Think about Vera. She’ll come under scrutiny, too…her family, her whole life will become uncomfortable.”
David cleared his throat. “I hate to say this, bucko, but she’s right. I remember when I was here in ‘68 one of the Italian exchange students—a real Romeo—fell for Masha, a mathematics student. Whoo, she was hot stuff, but none of us poor adolescents could get near her. Only her Romeo. Anyway, he opted to stay in the country and that’s the last we saw of him.”
Paul’s face had turned grey. “What do you mean?”
“He just quietly disappeared. When we asked the teachers about him, some of them actually pretended they didn’t know who we were talking about. My professor—he was a good guy—gave me a straight answer, or as close to a straight answer as you’ll get here. He said that Romeo was being re-settled. That was his word, ‘re-settled’. He didn’t look too happy when he said it.”
“So what does it mean?”

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