In Secret

Yannis Ritsos (1909?1990), one of Greece?s great poets, was nine times nominated for the Nobel Prize. In Secret gives the reader David Harsent?s free versions, ?re-imaginings,? ?adaptations??a precious few of Yannis Ritsos? short lyrics. His books were publicly burned and he spent many years in prison or in island detention camps. Ritsos sometimes wrote at near-epic length, but much of his work consists of short lyrics: story-fragments, tiny psychodramas.

?Harsent has an unmistakable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament . . . Pain and loss light us through the darkness.? ? From The Guardian review of Harsent?s Night by Frances Leviston