Tasos Leivaditis' Triptych

Tasos Leivaditis (1922-88), one of the undiscovered greats of Modern Greek literature, entered the poetic scene in the middle of the last century with three short poetry books, presented here in English translation for the first time. These works, received with both popular and critical acclaim upon publication in 1952-53, give compelling testimony to the violence of the twentieth century, witnessed by Leivaditis and his generation in the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II and the subsequent civil war (1946-49) between the left and right-wing factions. The latter, internecine battle found Leivaditis, a committed communist, on the defeated side, and he was exiled to concentration camps on various islands for more than three years. Soon after his release, he published a remarkable triptych of poetic works that evoke the horrors of war and, in the midst of this, the yearning for justice and peace.

The first work in the trilogy, Battle at the End of the Night, is set on the Aegean island of Makronisos, which functioned in the civil war years as an internment camp for leftist dissidents. The entire action takes place over a single, seemingly endless, wintry night reeking of terror and death. But the narrator defiantly retains his faith in our common humanity and his conviction that justice will prevail. The second work, This Star Is For All of Us, is also set during the civil war, but this time the focus is the author's beloved, Maria. Although imprisoned, he is confident that they will meet again, and his love for her becomes by the end universal in scope. The sense of solidarity also deeply marks the final work, The Wind at the Crossroads of the World, the shortest of the three but the most controversial. The book was banned and Leivaditis thrown into prison once again, the authorities unable to tolerate the book's "subversive proclamation" of freedom and peace.